DeKalb County residents had the chance to keep history alive this weekend at the one-room Old North Grove School, 26745 Brickville Road.

The North Grove School Association hosted a two-day open house, which consisted of schoolhouse tours, a raffle ticket sale, root beer floats and a barbershop quartet.

The school was built in 1878 by members of the Swedish Lutheran Church, said association vice president Teresa Irving. It was purchased by the DeKalb County public school district in 1880 for $200. Classes were taught at the location until the school closed in 1952. Now, Irving said, the building is mostly used by the Sycamore school district for field trips — tours to educate students about the past in the hopes of keeping it alive.

“We want to keep the school maintained and have people understand the past,” Irving said. “There has to be people coming around in order to keep something healthy.”

One way to keep history alive is to hear firsthand experiences.

Alice Whitney attended the school first through fifth grade until 1951. Whitney said she hopes visitors learn of the differences of the time between 1951 and now.

“Students get to experience what it was like to go to a one-room schoolhouse,” Whitney said. “We didn’t have computers, we had to walk everywhere, there were only about six kids in a class — and that was considered a big class. It was a completely different time.”

Whitney said instead of using computers, she and her classmates spent recesses outside playing kick-the-can, even in the snow. She said a lot of times, since all grade levels were in the same room, the younger students would catch on to some of the things older students were learning. She said this differs greatly from the current way students learn, with different grades in different classrooms.

Association president Carole Lichty also attended Old North Grove School when it was open.

“The rules were much stricter,” Lichty said. “If you got in trouble in school, you’d go home and get in trouble again. I think parents and teachers can be more lenient these days.”

Lichty believes it is important for people to have a knowledge of the past.

“I think it makes people aware of the history of Sycamore and all of DeKalb County,” Lichty said. “It reflects on education. It’s as important to look to the past as much as to the future.”

Irving said that in the future, the association hopes to purchase land surrounding the schoolhouse for a visitor’s center.