WSIU InFocus Video Player

Let's s travel back in time -- 137 years, to be exact. This is when a small, octagon-shaped one-room schoolhouse opened in the small town of Schuline, Illinois. Today, the Charter Oak School is one of only three octagonal schoolhouses in the United States still in existence. After the school closed in 1954, it was neglected for years until the Randolph County Historical Society purchased and restored the unique structure. Today the school is occasionally used for tutoring children and is open for visitors who have made arrangements with the historical society. Fran Hawkins, the primary caretaker of the school, welcomes guests like St. Mark's Lutheran School teacher Karen Gramenz, whose students have explored the unique features of the building, played vintage games, and practiced writing on slate chalk boards.

To view the video on the page, installation of the Silverlight plug-in from Microsoft. The direct link to the video is available. Further, Macintosh users will need the Flip4Mac software installed to play Windows Media files.