The historic Eglon Schoolhouse, which is now a community hall, will be holding its 100-year anniversary celebration Oct. 15, featuring a few of the students from the school that closed in 1951.
The schoolhouse will be open from 1-3 p.m. that Saturday. Folks can view photographs and the history of the building. Cake and coffee will be provided. There will be up to a half-dozen students from the Eglon Schoolhouse attending.
The public school was built in 1922 and offered grades 1-6 before closing down nearly 30 years later in large part due to David Wolfle Elementary opening in Kingston in the early 1950s, said Eglon Improvement Club secretary Sherry Cordiner.
“Back then, there were little schoolhouses all over,” she said. “I know from a few of the students that they found it very upsetting … to go from a little school in Eglon to what was then a pretty big school at Wolfle.”
Eglon was a popular gathering spot in North Kitsap at that time. It included a post office, grocery store, fishing resort and a ferry that came once a week carrying supplies from Seattle.
As a community center now, it has been host to weddings, forage club meetings and more.
“Anybody can use the schoolhouse; you don’t even have to be an Eglon member,” Cordiner said. “It’s for use by donation.”
It is also the place where EIC holds its monthly meetings. The EIC’s purpose is to keep Eglon residents connected about events and happenings in the area, Cordiner said, adding the club also does a few fundraisers a year for student scholarships for the Greater Hansville Community Center. There is no membership fee to join EIC; you just have to live in the Eglon area.
As the facility keeps aging, some renovations will need to take place to keep it usable, such as redoing the roof, new paint job and adding an ADA ramp. The EIC often sends out letters to community members, which include donation requests to help with renovations. Improvements to the building will depend on how much funding is received.
“It’s starting to get in pretty rough shape,” Cordiner said. “So far, all of the maintenance has been done by volunteers in the community, which are becoming fewer and fewer. Maintaining the schoolhouse is becoming more difficult for the ones that are involved.”
Cordiner grew up in Big Valley near Poulsbo and remembers going to Eglon with her family to the beach, as they knew lots of people who lived there. She ended up moving to Eglon in 1989 after getting married.
“It is the gathering place for the community,” she said about the schoolhouse. “Keeping the community together is very important these days. I hope the community cares enough about it to keep it going for eternity.”
