OQUOSSOC – The Rangeley Lakes Region Historical Society has been awarded a grant from Franklin Savings Bank. The Grant will finance the construct of a cupola to house the original Oquossoc Schoolhouse Bell on the grounds of the Society’s Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum.
The bell was a gift to RLRHS by Jim Davenport of Bald Mountain Road. The Oquossoc Schoolhouse was a traditional old fashioned one-room school that served this small community on the western end of Rangeley Lake from the end of the 19th century until its closing after World War II.
The bell once called the village’s children to the one-room schoolhouse located on Oxford Street for classes each day. Davenport, who grew up in Oquossoc, was once a student at the tiny village schoolhouse.
“It’s a great old bell and when I was a kid you could hear it ringing from quite a ways off. I remember it ringing in celebration of the end of World War II,” Davenport said.
The schoolhouse became a convent for a time after the public school was closed and later on the bell was removed. As the story goes it became quite well traveled and left the state for a time. The large 200-pound bell was tracked down and “rescued” by Davenport and has been stored in his shed at his camp on Mooselookmeguntic Lake for many years.
Last summer he approached the Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum’s director, Bill Pierce regarding a possible donation to RLRHS which operates OSHM. Pierce then presented the idea of sharing it on the museum’s grounds in a grant application to Franklin Savings Bank.
“Franklin Savings is thrilled to help provide a homecoming of sorts to this important part of Rangeley’s history,” FSB’s Leeanna Wilbur said.
Preparations are underway for constructing a rustic cupola on the grounds of the museum to house the bell as well as an information panel to share the story of the bell and its role in the village’s history. “It is an honor for all of us at the bank to be a part of this wonderful project and to help support the efforts of the Historical Society and OSHM,” added Wilbur.
For more information or to share a picture or memory of the old Oquossoc Schoolhouse please call 864-3091. The Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum is open 10 to 4 p.m. Weds.-Sun in June and will soon be open seven days a week for the months of July and August.
