Sunnyside School is typical of early one-room schoolhouses in that it features a rectangular form and a front-gable roof. It is a bit unusual, however, in that it features a rather elaborate front elevation with two entrances flanking a set of arched windows. The architects’ specifications suggest one is for boys and one is for girls. Built in 1879, the school comes from a pattern-book design compiled by Topeka-based architects John Haskell and Louis M H Wood and endorsed by state education officials of the time.

The original plans called for a staircase with handrails leading up to each entrance. Although this may have been how the school was accessed originally, the building has for many years featured a concrete platform/porch floor that runs the width of the building that is accessed by a single set of concrete steps. A wood-frame accessibility ramp has been attached to the south side of the concrete platform and runs alongside the south elevation of the building. At each corner of the building there is a corner board, and the roofline is finished with a simple cornice.

Originally, there were two outhouses – one for girls and one for boys. Today, only one outhouse remains standing to the southwest of the schoolhouse. The small, wood-frame building features a wood-shingle shed roof. The exterior is clad with flat, vertical wood boards. There is a single wood door on the south elevation.

Although there have been some modifications to the school building, it retains a high degree of integrity. The primary modification to the exterior involves the steps leading up to the two entrances and the addition of a wood-frame accessibility ramp. The primary changes to the interior include the addition of carpet over the wood floors, a slightly dropped ceiling with florescent lighting, and the installation of plumbing in 2009. The building’s cupola was destroyed due to deterioration in the 1970s, but the original bell is stored in the attic.

Sunnyside School hosted classes for grades one through eight until 1954. In addition to hosting classes during the school year, Sunday School classes were held in the building from the 1920s to the 1940s. In many ways, this building served as the heart of the township since there was no other church or town within its boundary.

Upon the school’s closure in 1954, the Sunny Valley Homemaker’s Demonstration Unit and the Golden Valley 4-H club renovated the building for use as a community center and meeting place. In 1955, the Homemaker’s Unit began holding its monthly meetings there. The schoolhouse became a voting site and community center for Sarcoxie Township in 1956. The Golden Valley 4-H club disbanded in the late 1950s.

In 1977, the Sunny Valley EEU learned of the school district’s intention to tear down the old school building. The members contacted the district officials to inquire if the Unit could be responsible for the building and continue using it for meetings. On February 9, 1977, the lease was negotiated for the sum of $1.00 for 99 years. The Sunny Valley Unit still uses the building for its meetings. It remains the voting place for Sarcoxie Township residents. The School is available to the community for meetings and private social functions.

The one-story, gable roofed native limestone structure stands on a stone foundation. A two-story, hipped roof, wooden entry tower projects from the center of the facade. Wooden shingles cover the gable and tower roofs. The building’s gable facade has a southern orientation. The building measures approximately twenty-five feet from east to west arid forty feet from north to south. A dirt floor cellar stands underneath the northern half of the building. The building appears to be structurally sound except for some minor settling and a small water problem in the facade entry tower. The building is used as a meeting hall by the Valley Ridge Extension Homemakers Unit.

The school’s interior space is comprised of a center entry foyer flanked by two coatrooms, all of which lead into the main classroom. The tower entry foyer is sided with horizontal boards, stepping across the school’s original stone threshold leads into the school’s original foyer area. An arched doorway with a double paned arched transom forms the original doorway, above it is the school’s date and district number stone hidden by the tower. A four-paneled bible door with a triple paned transom leads into a windowed coatroom and/or office space on the east and west sides of the foyer. A transomed four-paneled bible door with sidelights leads from the foyer into the classroom. A four-paneled bible door with a transom leads into the classroom from each of the coatrooms.

Buck Creek School served the families of School District Number 43 for seventy-five years as a center of education, public meetings, and social events. Buck Creek School’s historical significance through its association with education in Jefferson County spans the period from 1878, when the first classes were held in it, to 1938, the National Register fifty year cut-off date for significance, although the building remained in active use as a school until 1952. Buck Creek School is also architecturally significant as an example of the prototypical nineteenth century one room schoolhouse. Its period of architectural significance is defined by its construction date of 1878.

the resources comprising the Maplecroft Farmstead represent the agricultural development of Kaw Township, Jefferson County, Kansas. The earliest buildings also are associated with the earliest settlement of the township. Built circa 1862 the western portion of the house is attributed to James Townsend, son-in-law of John Kuykendall who acquired the first patent for the land later to become Maplecroft. By the end of 1873, Hanson Frisbie was the owner of the land. This farm has remained in the Frisbie family for over 100 years, being the center of the family’s agricultural endeavors that included potatoes, apples, and livestock. Spanning from circa 1862 to 1967, the farmstead’s period of significance encompasses the years of its earliest settlement through to Hanson Frisbie’s great-grandson’s tenure.

an incorporated city of the third class in Jefferson County, that is located in Kentucky township on the Union Pacific R. R., 15 miles south of Oskaloosa, the county seat. Perry was surveyed and platted in 1865 by the railroad company and the first store was opened in that year. A post office was soon after established with Joseph Terrel postmaster. Perry was incorporated on March 3, 1871, with N J Stark as the first mayor. A $7,000 school house was completed in that year.

in May 1923, the State Highway Commission awarded the Board of County Commissioners of Jefferson County $19,700 in Federal Aid toward the construction of the Delaware River Parker Truss Bridge. The total estimated cost of the bridge was $39,400 and the county anticipated completion by the end of 1924. Payment disputes and subsequent lawsuits led to great delays and the forfeiture of Jefferson County contracts with both Ernest Euler, the fill contractor, and the Midland Bridge & Construction Company of Kansas City, Missouri. In September 1925, the Perry Mirror reported that Yancy Brothers Construction Company had contracted to build the concrete deck and abutments and the Kansas City Structural Steel Company of Kansas City, Missouri, had contracted for the steelwork. Markings on the structural members indicate that Kansas City Structural Steel Company purchased the stock metal from the Illinois Steel Company of Gary, Indiana. In spite of a few minor weather delays, construction of the Delaware River Parker Truss Bridge was complete in May 1926.

Prior to the 1930s, the railroad was the primary means of long-distance travel and there was little need for roads to extend more than a few dozen miles. With little stimulus for improving roads that would cross multiple jurisdictions, road construction and maintenance remained local concerns. County commissioners often carried the burden of selecting bridge locations, over which much contention was common.

The range of choices for bridge designs and companies was vast. Many of the larger bridge companies sold metal truss bridges through mail order catalogues. County commissioners could simply specify the span, clearance needs, and truss type (if there was a preference), then choose the lowest bidder from the numerous competing companies that had salesmen in the field.

By the late nineteenth century, fabrication of iron and steel was widespread. The speed of construction and the relatively low cost of metal truss bridge parts ensured their popularity over labor-intensive masonry bridges and short-lived timber bridges. Toward the end of the nineteenth century the quality, quantity, and cost of steel improved to such a degree that it virtually replaced wrought iron for bridge construction by 1910.

Most metal trusses were constructed of built-up members composed of mass-produced, standard-shaped channel, plate, and angle stock purchased from one or more of the numerous steel companies nationwide. The bridge companies preassembled trusses in their factories then simply shipped them to the bridge site for installation. Installation involved grading approaches, constructing abutments and piers, erecting preassembled floor and truss members, and placing deck material.

Valley Falls, formerly Grasshopper Falls, the largest town in Jefferson County and one of the important towns of northeastern Kansas, is located in the northwestern part of the county, 16 miles from Oskaloosa, the county seat, and about 25 miles from Topeka. It is in Delaware township on the Delaware river, which furnishes power for its flour mills. It is an important shipping point and railroad center, having three of the large roads converging there—the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Missouri Pacific and the Union Pacific. Besides the regular lines of business, Valley Falls has a creamery, flour mills, spacious elevators for storing grain, waterworks, electric light plant, an opera house and two weekly newspapers. The principal shipments are grain, live stock and produce. The population in 1910 was 1,150.

Grasshopper Falls was settled in 1854 by Henry Zen, who had visited the locality two years before, accompanying Major Ogden to Fort Riley. Zen was often visited by the Kickapoo Indians after erecting his cabin, but was never molested. In the fall he was ordered to leave the country by the agent for the Indians. The next settlement was a permanent one, by James Frazier, Robert Riddle, H B Jolley and A J Whitney, who drove their stakes on Christmas day, 1854. Their first act was to stake out the boundaries of a town and plat the lots. They then began the erection of a cabin but before it was finished the provisions ran low and one of the number went to Weston, Mo., for a new supply. He was gone eleven days and there was much suffering in the camp before he returned.

About this time Zen returned and with him was Henry Webber. Stephen H Dunn came in March, 1855, with his wife and started a blacksmith shop. A grist mill was built by a company composed of James Frazier, Robert Riddle, A J Whitney and Isaac Cody. The latter was the father of “Buffalo Bill,” and was elected representative to the legislature from Jefferson County. In the spring of 1855 the town was surveyed and named Grasshopper Falls. The legislature changed the name to “Sautrelle Falls” but the citizens never recognized the name and it was later changed to Valley Falls. The streets were named after the pioneer women.

At the land sales the rights of the town company were not recognized and the land which they had staked out, comprising 320 acres, was laid off in quarter sections and sold at the appraised value. Different men had to buy these lands and as some of them never turned their holdings over to the county the stockholders suffered a loss. This condition of affairs gave rise to considerable trouble in the way of land contests. In the year 1857, after the land sale, a number of buildings went up, including a Lutheran church, a steam sawmill and a large hotel.

Grasshopper Falls was incorporated as a town in 1869, and in 1871 it was incorporated as a city. In 1875 the name was changed to Valley Falls by act of the legislature.

the Delaware River Composite Truss Bridge is located at the northeastern city limits of Valley Falls in northeast Kansas. The region is defined by rounded hills and broad, wooded valleys. The Delaware River Composite Truss Bridge carries Coal Creek Road across the Delaware River, a wide, shallow course that flows into Perry Lake approximately five miles south. The paved roadway, flanked by residential neighborhoods to the south and wooded bottomland to the north, aligns directly with the Delaware River Composite Truss Bridge. Remnant abutments from two demolished railroad bridges stand adjacent to the east side of the Delaware River Composite Truss Bridge.

The bridge was relocated to the present site in 1974. It is located over a small water course in a recreated historical village site. Access to the bridge is pedestrian only and wood posts are located at each approach. The site integrity of the bridge has been affected by the move but the structural integrity remains intact.

The bridge was originally erected in 1875 across Rock Creek, 1.5 miles north of Meriden. Sometime in the 1950s it was relocated to a location, on a road now vacated, 1.5 miles south and 4 miles east of Valley Falls. In 1974, Old Jefferson Town, “an historical replica of an early-day Jefferson county town,” acquired the structure and moved it for the third time to their site in the city of Oskaloosa.

Although the final move has affected the integrity of the structure in that only pedestrian traffic is allowed, it does cross a small stream and is being preserved. It can serve as a model as to what can be done to save a structure when removal is deemed necessary. In some ways, the location to such a park setting is an admirable method of raising the public awareness of the significance of our transportation and engineering heritage. It remains the example of a bridge fabricated and sold by a prolific out-of-state bridge builder. It still stands as a monument to the early settlers in the state and their striving for economic progress, it is worthy of listing.^[9]

a composite unit of four rectangular storerooms unified by common materials and design. Each section is two stories in height and has a full basement. The buildings face north toward the courthouse square, and the whole business block measures 100 feet long and 80 feet deep with a height of 35 feet.

The Union Block, located at the southeast corner of the square in Oskaloosa, was erected in 1892 for several local businessmen. Designed by architect H M Hadley of Topeka, the two-story brick and stone block was planned to provide four business fronts on the first floor and space for offices on the second. The corner portion of the east end of the block was built for the State Bank of Oskaloosa, Charles W Huddleston, cashier; his father, William Huddleston, built the next portion west for a store and office building; next was a store and office building for A G Smith, M D; and the west section was a store and office building for B McClellan.^[10]