One of Kentucky's "Moonlight Schools" Will Remain a Museum of Literacy

Story from the archives by Rosemary Carlson / July 23, 2004

 Printer-friendly version

Moonlight school, Morehead, Ky. (Tim Holbrook)

With only the light of the full moon to illuminate their way, men and women of all ages and races came on foot and horseback to Rowan County, Ky., on the night of Sept. 5, 1911. They gathered in 50 one-room schoolhouses, where children were taught by day, because one woman offered them hope, the hope of being able to read and write. Cora Wilson Stewart (1875-1958), who was born in Rowan County and became the state's superintendent of schools at age 26, later called that night "the brightest moonlit night the world has ever seen." These so-called Moonlight Schools, open only when there was a full moon, became models for teaching literacy in the state and all over the nation.

In the heart of Kentucky hill country, one of one of the first Cora Wilson Stewart Moonlight Schools, a white clapboard one-room schoolhouse built in 1910, now has a permanent home beside the public library in downtown Morehead, a small university town of 9,000.

Named after a creek that runs through Rowan County, the Little Brushy School, open until 1963, has been moved twice from its original location twice. During the last two years, the owner of the school, Morehead State University, and a downtown revitalization group called Morehead Tomorrow considered moving the building, now a museum, again. Last year they agreed to leave it downtown.

Stewart discovered the extent of adult illiteracy when men who were going off to fight in World War I asked her to teach them to write so they could send letters home. She found that adults, most of who worked during the day, were embarrassed to attend the same classes as children and recruited volunteer teachers who could teach adults at night. Knowing that children's books wouldn't work with adults, she used the local newspaper as a textbook. Rowan County, known for both wars and feuds, was not a safe place in the early 20th century, and when the Moonlight School movement began in 1911, adult students feared walking or riding to school unless by the light of the moon.

When Stewart launched her experimental education program in the one-room schools across the state, she expected about 200 students to attend. "Over 1,200 people showed up on opening night," says Dr. Yvonne Baldwin, chair of the department of geography, government, and history at Morehead State University. "The 50 one-room schools in Stewart's district were overwhelmed," she says.

The Moonlight movement became so popular that, by the third year of classes in Kentucky, it had spread to most of the state's counties and to Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina. After one-room schools were abandoned when education consolidation began, no one kept track of them. Most, if they are still standing, are on private property and are used as outbuildings. The only school that is now a museum is the Little Brushy School.

In the early 1970s, the director of Morehead State University's Appalachian Adult Education Center proposed that the university, founded in 1887 as Morehead Normal School, acquire and preserve one of the former Moonlight Schools. A Rowan County landowner named William Dailey agreed to donate the building to the university, and in 1972 its president authorized the acquisition of the building, renamed the Cora Wilson Stewart Moonlight School. "We felt it important to preserve one of the Moonlight Schools, since they formed the basis of our education and cultural heritage," says Keith Kappes, current vice president for university relations.

The school on Morehead's campus

The university restored the school and moved it from its original location, eight miles north of Morehead, to its campus, where it became a museum of sorts, with original desks, chairs, and lunch buckets. It was situated adjacent to the Breckinridge Building, which had served as a training school for elementary and secondary teachers.

In 2000, Breckinridge was scheduled for renovation, and school officials decided the Moonlight School should be moved out of harm's way. In addition, parking for Moonlight School visitors and tour groups had always been a problem at that location. So workers again moved the school, along with the state historical marker, to its current location on city-owned land beside the Morehead Public Library.

After discussing the school's final resting place for two years, the university, the Morehead Tomorrow revitalization group, the Morehead Public Library Board, and the Rowan County Historical Society now agree that the school will remain in its place. Morehead Tomorrow is planning a downtown arts district, already secured by the Kentucky Folk Art Museum, established in 1985. With its position at the other end of the street from the folk-art museum, Kappes says, "the school can also serve as one end of an anchor to the arts district."

Thus, the Cora Wilson Stewart Moonlight School, which helped light the way out of the darkness of illiteracy, may have a similar purpose as a cornerstone of the developing arts district of downtown Morehead.

Rosemary Carlson is a freelance writer in Morehead, Ky.

This story was originally published on Preservation Online on March 7, 2003.

Read excerpts from our current issue

Recent Stories