Frisco One-room Schoolhouse Bell Tower, Colorado Poster

"Historic Frisco One-room Schoolhouse Bell Tower, Colorado" by Catherine Sherman. A beautiful Victorian bell tower crowns the old Frisco one-Room Schoolhouse in Frisco, Colorado. This cupola, designed by Victorian architect Elias Nashold in 1882, was moved from another school house before that building was torn down in 1909. Behind the the cupola, are aspens which shade the grounds. The bell in the tower was stolen in 1975 during a renovation, when the thieves likely used the workmen's scaffolding to snatch the bell. The bell was found by new Frisco residents in their backyard 12 years later. Before it was identified as the missing school bell, it was used by the homeowner as a wood bin. Volunteers reinstalled the bell, and on Christmas Eve 1988 the bell rang for the first time in twelve years. Originally built as a saloon in 1899, the historic Frisco Schoolhouse opened in 1901. The old saloon building remained Frisco's schoolhouse until 1963 when new school buildings were built. The schoolhouse was then used as administrative offices for the school district through the 1970s. Marked for destruction, a citizens' group saved the building and acquired it and the surrounding land for a museum, called the Frisco Historic Park, which the Town of Frisco officially dedicated and opened as the Frisco Historic Park & Museum on July 2, 1983. The schoolhouse, which is in its original location, contains original blackboards and school desks. The museum also contains information about Ute people, Dillon Reservoir, mining, late 1800s clothing, and photographs. The Frisco Historic Park includes other original Frisco buildings from the late 1800s, including a log chapel, jail, trapper's cabin and furnished homes. The schoolhouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.