The Peter Parley/West Lane District Schoolhouse, now a small museum operated by the Ridgefield Historical Society, will begin its seasonal open houses on Sunday, May 26, from 1 to 4 p.m.

Come to learn about early Ridgefield education and how the town’s one-room schools operated. For the opening, an exhibit is planned based on a teacher’s notebook kept in 1820-21 by the young teacher David Whitney Olmsted, who lived nearby on Olmstead Lane, and whose son, David Olmsted, later attended the school. The record book is part of the Ridgefield Historical Society’s collection.

There will be refreshments to celebrate the start of a new season of open houses at the school; Jack and Sally Sanders, volunteers with the Historical Society, will be on hand to answer questions.

Other Sunday open houses will take place June 30, July 28, Aug. 25, Sept. 29 and Oct. 27, from 1 to 4 p.m. Among the prominent graduates of the West Lane District School, in addition to Samuel G. Goodrich (famous under the pen name was Peter Parley), whose birthday will be celebrated in August, are his brother, the Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, also a prominent 19th Century author, and their sister, Abigail Goodrich Whittelsey, one of the first woman editors and publishers of magazines.

In September, the focus will be on Cyrus Northrop Jr., a Ridgefield farm boy who went on to graduate from Yale University, taught there, and later became the president of the University of Minnesota. October at the schoolhouse will be the time for Halloween costumes and treats.

During each open house, guests are invited to tour the one-room school (last used by students in 1915) and learn about how Ridgefield’s district schools were organized and what has become of the structures where 18th, 19th and some 20th Century Ridgefielders received all of their education.

For more information, contact [email protected]