Saving the schoolhouse: How Nebraskans are transforming abandoned schools

When visitors walk into the former Royal school building in northeast Nebraska, they’ll find an old milk bottling machine, butter churns and shelves full of vintage milk glasses.

Jim Keim has turned the 1912 school building into the Royal Milk Bottle & Dairy Museum, boasting a wide collection of dairy memorabilia he’s collected over the years.

“I spent my whole life in the dairy business,” Keim said. “I retired from Highland-Roberts Ice Cream Company in Norfolk.”

Keim opened the dairy museum on Memorial Day this year. He had purchased the school building in 2024 and put a lot of work into getting it ready for opening day, like fixing up the walls and floors.

“My daughter later told me ‘I was adamantly against you coming up here and buying this until I got in here and seen the building. It is such a neat old building,’” Keim said.

The dairy museum is one of many — probably hundreds or even thousands — of schools in Nebraska that serve a new purpose in their communities. The number of school districts has been declining for years due to closures and consolidations: from 7,133 districts in 1926 to 544 in 2000. That number is 244 today.

Rather than leaving buildings vacant or demolishing them, several communities are finding ways to repurpose them, like in Beatrice, where one of the elementary schools is being turned into affordable housing.

Stoddard Elementary was initially constructed between 1956 and 1957. Hoppe Development helped turn the building into housing for a 55+ community with 25 units. The company has turned several school buildings into apartments, including in Grand Island and Lincoln.

Connor Menard, manager of project development at Hoppe Development, said communities are excited to see old buildings renovated into something new.

“This was not this project, but another project we worked on, it was an elder person, a senior, and she was like, ‘I'm holding off on going on the other side until I get a unit in one of these places,’” Menard said. “I think people are really excited.”

Stoddard Elementary was left vacant after Beatrice Public Schools consolidated its three elementary schools and one preschool into one new building that was completed in 2024.

Menard said the city donated the school and some ground that used to be an old ball field and play area. The empty ground will be turned into 45 townhomes for anyone to rent and a community building for a food pantry and small medical clinic.

“You're turning the eyesore, deteriorating building into an asset for the community,” Menard said. “A lot of it was just listening to communities and hearing their need and creating more housing for them with existing buildings that they already have.”

In addition to bringing more housing to communities, Menard said these projects revitalize the area around them, like bringing people to fill job openings.

“We've really seen the area around it grow and thrive,” Menard said. “Sometimes it just brings new life to that area. People have more sense of purpose and place with it.”

In Ewing, the high school was left vacant when the district consolidated with two others to make Summerland Public Schools in 2021. Dustin Wright and Mike Tagel didn’t let it sit empty for long, though, and took over ownership of the old Ewing High School building.

They’ve been turning it into a strip mall of sorts, with the old classrooms being rented out to businesses like a second-hand store and flower shop.

“It's all just trying to be a part of the community and make it grow,” Wright said. “That's the whole reason I'm in here.”

The building itself was constructed in 1992, and the gymnasium in the 1970s. The two have kept the structure of the school the same, and people who attended classes there can still see what used to be their teenage stomping grounds.

“You can see there's still whiteboards on the wall and stuff like that from this classroom,” Tagel said. “They just make do with what's here.”

Businesses renting a room are responsible for any remodeling they would like, while Wright and Tagel make sure to take care of the big problems that pop up.

So far, there’s a childcare center, a flower shop and a second-hand store in the school, along with anyone who wants to rent out the gym.

Linda Wingett, a volunteer with Sunset Thrift Store, said the school building offered more room for the increasing amount of clothes and items being donated. They were the first store to move in.

“We couldn't wait to get here. I couldn't wait to get here,” Wingett said. “Compared to what we had, you can understand why.”

Doris Ann Bollwitt, another volunteer, said it’s a great idea to repurpose the school into a place for businesses.

“The building is not that old, and it's still in good condition, so it's great that it's being used for things,” Bollwitt said. “It makes me so sad to see these schools, or any building, that's left to go to rack and ruin.”

Right next door is This & That Floral, owned by Juliana Botha. She said having a space for businesses to exist next to each other brings more foot traffic.

“I knew the secondhand store was here, but I found it really exciting to come in next to them, thinking we could draw business for each other,” Botha said. “I was excited about the idea of other businesses coming here together.”

Botha’s business is in the old science room. A different flower shop used to reside in it before she started in January. Botha pointed out where some of the sinks still are, which she’s covered with black cloths. She brought in everything except the big silver cooler that was already there.

Botha said she wasn’t sure what to expect when she started, but both Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day proved successful.

“This town is very supportive, and I've been very happy with that,” Botha said. “It took off really great for me.”

On the other side of the school building is Bailey’s Little Cats, a child care center. Bailey Kester, the owner, said she wanted to be with her own kids all the time, and she wanted to help her community fill some of its childcare needs.

Kester said the location of the old school building made it an ideal spot.

“We had a bunch of parents moving back, like younger parents,” Kester said. “I just wanted to be right in the community, right in the middle of town, too.”

Kester attended school at Ewing High School before it closed. She said it’s neat to see it turn into something new.

“This was the old music room here, and then that was the old art room because I have two different sides here,” Kester said. “It's cool seeing it change into something different, even though I went to school here.”

A large part of Nebraska’s education history is the idea of the one-room schoolhouse. State legislators passed a law in 2005 requiring all Class I districts, which were elementary schools serving K-6 or K-8, to join another district with a high school. Those schools were mostly one-room school houses, leading to many closing after joining another district.

The Combs School in Homer closed long before that law, in 1964, during an earlier movement to consolidate schools. Susan Nelson Rudberg was a student during some of those final years, and now, she and her husband, Ted, teach students the history of the Combs School as board members of the Dakota County Historical Society.

“This definitely is the oldest schoolhouse in Dakota County, and probably in the state,” Ted said. “You can see it’s well built. A lot of the one-room schoolhouses had dirt floors and all, but they put a lot of money in. The pioneers really thought this was important, wood floors and glass.”

The two show the modern students what learning used to look like. They teach the “3 R’s” written on the chalkboard — “Readin, Ritin and Rithmetic.” The Rudbergs explain how the students had to pour water in a basin to wash their hands.

Susan said while she had two other students in her grade at the school, her older sister was the sole person in hers. The teacher would spend time with each grade, which Susan said ultimately helped everyone.

“We're really learning a lot because they were hearing it and reinforcing all the concepts and reminding them of that history they learned back in third grade,” Susan said. “They were reviewing it later, had it in their memory really strong.”

They also tell the students about what would happen if someone misbehaved. There were the usual punishments of the dunce caps and drawing a circle on the chalkboard to put their nose in.

“Her father went to school here, and grandmother, and he was saying, ‘Oh, the worst penalty was, the big desk back there, you'd have to sit next to a girl,’” Ted said. “How terrible that was, and all his friends would tease him and stuff.”

One of their favorite moments, though, is telling the students someone “famous” is in the room. Ted pulled out a picture of the 1956-57 class of the Combs School.

“We ask kids, do they know that person?” Ted said while pointing to a student on the far right. “I said, ‘Well, her name's Susie Nelson.’ ‘Oh, we don't know.’ ‘Well, she's in this room,’ and then they can't believe that's her.”

Susan said she loves sharing her experiences with the students, and she enjoys seeing them make their own memories in the school during their visits, like playing outside and running away from the outhouses after seeing a spider.

“It's wonderful,” Susan said. “They just can't believe I'm so old that I would have gone to a one-room country school.”