Formally known as Glen Valley Park, Elder Brook is an 8.5 acre park that features a walking trail, open play space, retention pond, and on street parking. The name was changed last year to reflect the school that once sat on that property. Parts of the school house foundation can still be seen in the wooded southeast corner of the park.
According to a report done by John Richards at UW-Milwaukee:
“The Elder Brook School site harbors the remains of the School District No. 3 Schoolhouse and is located in Greenville Township, Outagamie County, Wisconsin. The land on which the school was constructed was deeded as a school house property in 1854 but the earliest available plat maps of the township dates to 1873. This map depicts a school on the property. However, it is likely that the original construction occurred in 1854 or soon thereafter as free public education was mandated by Wisconsin’s state constitution six years earlier in 1848. By 1937 state-wide compliance with Wisconsin’s law resulted in the creation of 7,777 school districts with 6,181 one-room schools (Apps 1996:177). State mandated consolidation efforts reduced that number to 2,289 one-room schools in 1959 but as late 1964, 595 one-room schools remained in operation; 20 of these were located in Outagamie County (Rothwell 1963). Today, Wisconsin has 424 public school districts with 2,215 schools, none of which are operating one-room school houses. A standing structure on the Elder Brook school site is last visible on a 1943 aerial photo but is no longer present on a 1957 aerial photo of the site.”
