| Oddly the White Oaks schoolhouse is a pretty common photo round these parts, and yet it took me quite a while to identify. Maybe it was because of it being so common, I just could not believe it was located in a place I had only been to one time. I think I kept looking in places I had been frequently, because in my mind I felt I had seen it so often. The school was built in 1895 when White Oaks was reportedly the second largest city in New Mexico. The two story brick school building was built on the north side of the valley. It had four rooms and served au grades from kindergarten through accredited college entrance courses. Upon entrance into the school, the room on the left was for grades one through four, the room to the right for five through eight. Up the stairs, the room to the left was for nine through twelve and to the right the kindergarten, for it had a good heat source. The view from the school was commanding, for one could see the entire town from the upstairs window. The last classes taught in the White Oaks school were in 1942. |
