Countryman Family One-Room Schoolhouse Museum

66 Russell St., Brooksville, FL, 34601

The Countryman Family One Room Schoolhouse stands at 66 Russell St. in Brooksville, beside the 1885 Train Depot, and is one of the museums run by the Hernando Historical Museum Association. It is a replica rather than an original building, modeled on the 1852 school that Fredrick Lykes built in the Brooksville-Weeki Wachee area. Inside, authentic wooden desks are set out as they would have been for pupils, and visitors are invited to sit in them during lessons. Docents, several of them former teachers, lead the program, which covers the three R's and everyday skills of the period; one activity has children and adults carry water jugs from a well, as students once did. Visitors have described a tour in which behaving or misbehaving carries consequences, including a dunce chair. The building includes electricity and a wheelchair ramp, modern additions that make it practical for current visitors. The schoolhouse grew out of a volunteer's project. Gretchen Countryman, a retired elementary teacher who joined the May-Stringer Museum as a docent in 1999, began a school exhibit inside the historic May-Stringer House. When it outgrew the space, the association decided on a freestanding replica, since Florida's climate and termites made an original wood building hard to sustain. Fundraising took more than ten years, and construction began after the $60,000 goal was met in 2014. The schoolhouse is open Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m. and is closed in July and August; the association said it would reopen on September 4, 2026. Hours can change, so call (352) 515-3054 to confirm. The same association operates the May-Stringer House at 601 Museum Ct. and the Train Depot at 70 Russell St.