FRISCO SCHOOLHOUSE & MUSEUM
120 Main Street in Frisco, Colorado
The Schoolhouse in Frisco is the town's earliest standing school building and the only school to serve Frisco from 1902 to 1940. Frisco was established as a mining town which experienced both boom and bust periods largely based on the silver market. In its mining heydey, the town boasted several saloons, four hotels and an opera house. After the 1893 silver crash, Frisco made a strong recovery with new mining interests. It was during this period that the schoolhouse building was constructed (originally built as a saloon in the mid to late 1890s).
Public school had been held in District 9 (Frisco) since 1882, according to school board minutes. Where classes were held at that time is not known. The first identified location of a school was on "all of Lot 7 on Block 8" as of June 13, 1899.
Two years later, on November 30, 1901, the school board purchased Lots 1, 2, and 3 on Block F along with the existing building on the property from Simon Schloss. Schloss had acquired the property from Oliver Swanson about one month before; although Swanson listed himself as a miner in 1900, he is the first owner of the property and it is presumed that he built and operated the saloon that was standing on the lots.
Swanson's building was subsequently converted into use as a school. A yearly average of twenty-five pupils attended the one-room schoolhouse from 1902 to 1940, when the school district was temporarily consolidated with Dillon. In 1947 the Frisco school was reopened and continued in use until 1961-1962. Thus the building was actively used as Frisco only school for fifty-three years. In the mid-1960s, it was reopened and functioned as the county school administration building until 1981.
Information from National Register of Historic Places.
LOCAL MEMORIES & STORIES
"I went to preschool there when it was across the street from our house on 6th and Granite." - Robert Shelton
"We used to climb up there and ring the bell when we were kids." - Steve Taylor
"Lived next door in the 50s. I went 1st second grade there!" - Rickey Lee Kalinowski
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