Here is a brief history of the Wetmore Community Building.
This information came from the minutes taken during the Wetmore Community Board History meeting held on June 8, 1999.
To read the complete minutes of the meeting, please view the document in its original form HERE.
Here are some basic facts as recorded in those minutes:
The building was completed in 1928 and was used as the Wetmore schoolhouse until the fall of 1961 when the C9 district consolidated with the Florence school district. Grades 1-8 were held in various rooms of the building. According to the notes, there was some question as to whether 9-12 grades were held there.
But, WHG&HS members, George “Bill” Hall and Dick Doman both attended the school and remember that what is now the Coffee Room was the high school classroom, the North Reading Room was the middle school classroom, the main Library room was the grade school classroom, and the Carolyn Shellenberger room was the Library.
Electricity was installed in the North Room in the 1940’s thanks to the GI Bill. The rest of the building received electricity around 1955. The original heat was a coal furnace. The outhouses were 30 feet NW of the building. Bathrooms were built in 1958-1959.
More interesting facts can be found in these minutes.
To read the complete minutes of the meeting, please view the document in its original form HERE.
Wetmore School Children Helping with the War Bond Effort
Interior view of a schoolroom in Wetmore, Custer County, Colorado, shows children sitting at their desks, their teacher, William Brock, in the back of the room next to the iron stove, an iron light fixture hanging from the ceiling, and the words: “Peace on Earth Good Will to Men,” above the chalkboard.
Identification on back reads: “Boys: 1. Albert Coleman 2. Elmer Lemaster 3. Joe Breece 4. Norman Hulbert 5. 6. Ed Turner 7. Fred Walters 8. Will Dalrymple 9. McCallister 10. Curt Vaughn 11. Lincoln Davis 12. James Heath 13. Joe Watson 14. John Kelley 15. Geo. Wright 16. Ed Watson 17. Geo. Watson 18. Ben King 19. Theo. Watson 20. Ern Hardy Girls: 1. Ethel Heath 2. Marie Bernard 3. Alice Betts 4. Ann Betts 5. McCallister 6. “Little” Mary Coleman 7. Agnes Wright 8. Dora Coleman 9. Ida Rule 10. Nellie Taylor.”
The Hardscrabble Creek flooding, circa 1940
From the collection of George “Bill” Hall.
The building underwent a major renovation in 2016-2017.
It is used for many community events and houses the Wetmore Community Library.