The Little Red Schoolhouse originally came to Bowling Green in 1976, where it has served as a time capsule of rural education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The venue will be open to the public on Sept. 26 during BGSU Homecoming. (BGSU photo / Craig Bell)
The one-room schoolhouse, located at the center of the BGSU campus, will host visitors on Sept. 26 during Homecoming weekend
Moved to Bowling Green from Norwalk Township in 1976, the Little Red Schoolhouse is an homage to Bowling Green State University’s long history of supporting education. Originally built in 1875, the one-room schoolhouse is a time capsule of American education that will be open to the public over Homecoming weekend.
Key Highlights
Building: Little Red Schoolhouse
Location: Next to Carillon Place
Event: 50th anniversary
Celebrating 50 years
The building formerly known as Norwalk #6 School was disassembled brick-by-brick and brought to Bowling Green and given a new frame and new roof. It was formally dedicated in 1976.
Make a stop at BGSU Homecoming
The Little Red Schoolhouse will be open to the public to experience its charm from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sept. 26 as part of the Homecoming festivities.
New traditions ring out
Though the original bell was not part of the first dedication, it was eventually donated to BGSU, where education students ring it twice: once to start their college careers and once at commencement.
“The phrase [Dean David Elsass] used that I’ve paraphrased many times is that he advocated for the Little Red Schoolhouse to be placed at the center of campus to remind all of us that teaching and learning are at the heart of everything we do at Bowling Green State University.”
DAWN SHINEW, PH.D.
DEAN, BGSU COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
One of the most ambitious projects in Bowling Green State University history is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
In the early 1970s, David Elsass ’49, ’53, Ph.D., the former dean of what is now known as the College of Education and Human Development, launched a campaign to bring an original one-room schoolhouse to the center of campus.
Four years of fundraising, a boost from the Ohio Legislature and a full-scale contracting project later, the Little Red Schoolhouse became an institution at the center of the BGSU campus.
Once known as District #6 School in Norwalk Township after being completed in 1875, the Linder family donated the building, which stood on their farm and had been decommissioned in 1938, to BGSU. The building was dismantled and moved brick by brick, given a new frame, a new roof and reassembled at BGSU, where it stands as a time capsule of American education.
As part of BGSU Homecoming, the Little Red Schoolhouse will be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sept. 26 for guests to experience education more than 100 years ago, replete with guided tours, educational artifacts and a classroom teacher dressed in a period-specific costume.
Current College of Education and Human Development dean Dawn Shinew, Ph.D., said Elsass, who passed away in 2018, maintained a lifelong affinity for the one-room schoolhouse that stands in view of the Education Building on campus.
“The Little Red Schoolhouse was really a project of love for him. He thought it was really important for Bowling Green State University now to remember how we started,” Shinew said. “The phrase he used that I’ve paraphrased many times is that he advocated for the Little Red Schoolhouse to be placed at the center of campus to remind all of us that teaching and learning are at the heart of everything we do at Bowling Green State University.”
The Little Red Schoolhouse is filled with educational keepsakes that have been donated over the years – from McGuffey’s Readers to vintage desks to a pencil pouch Shinew’s father carried as a schoolboy in the 1930s – that show what rural education was like in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
When the Little Red Schoolhouse was first moved from Norwalk to Bowling Green, it did not have its original bell in the building’s cupola. BGSU instead found a bell of the same vintage and installed it, only to receive a phone call to the dean’s office years later.
With the tongue-in-cheek condition that questions be kept to a bare minimum, the caller said they knew where the original bell was, stashed in good condition inside a barn in Norwalk.
Since the original bell rejoined its original home, it has become a symbolic item for Bowling Green students and alumni.
In the past decade, during Shinew’s time as dean, BGSU started a tradition through which each EDHD student rings the original bell twice to mark landmark moments during their own journey at the University.
“I decided we should make the bell part of a tradition,” she said. “Since I became dean, students ring that bell when they start their careers and again at commencement. I tell them that they ring their way in and ring their way out.
“We make a lot of noise because it signifies another Falcon is starting their life here or out in the world.”
As the University’s founding college, EDHD has a long, storied history of supporting education – BGSU educates more future teachers at a single site than any other university in Ohio – that only became accented with the Little Red Schoolhouse and its bell.
When BGSU students ring the bell for the first time, Shinew said it’s a moment they cherish for the rest of their lives.
“I think it grounds them to the place and lets them feel part of something, and it also gives me a chance to meet every student, which I think is important,” Shinew said. “I love being able to look at every student in the eye and let them know that I know they’re here, they’re going to be successful and we’re going to do everything we can to support them.”
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Updated: 09/22/2026 03:36PM