Decorate Your Tree with an Atwood Ornament

By Doris Elmore
Staff Writer

Decorate your Christmas tree this year with a nostalgic ornament of the very first school in Atwood. This ornament is the first in a series and you will want to collect them all. Proceeds will benefit Rajah Memorial Park.

The following information is on a card that is attached to the velvet gift bag the ornament arrives in. Atwood’s first school was located in a grove of box elder trees on Main Street at the northwest corner of what is now the intersection of Main and West Hickory Avenue. The school opened in 1884. The original two-story, wood-framed structure contained four rooms for all grades.

An addition was built years later and added two rooms, helping create separate areas for the grade school and high school. The building was heated by two large wood stoves and used kerosene lamps for lighting. The school building burned to the ground one July night in 1913.

Texas artist Regina Lopez captures the historic building on an ornament featuring the school’s original colors.

Each flat, shatterproof ornament comes in a velvet drawstring bag with a scratch resistant interior, a Christmas card tag with the school’s written history and a coupon to save on next year’s purchase.

A different school will be featured each year, so start your collection now. Only 150 ornaments are available for purchase each year. The ornaments sell for $10 each.

The ornaments make great Christmas gifts/stocking stuffers and are already in a beautiful bag, no need to re-wrap. To order, call A-H Public Library (578-2727). Curbside pickup is available.