Preston School

The beautiful brick building that you see today sitting in the small town of Preston covered in vines and hidden by towering trees was constructed in 1921 as the Preston School. It didn’t always used to be a small town though, its high school had an enrollment of 233 that year leading to a new building being constructed for around $80-100,000. This would become the new Preston High School and was finishing up construction in the fall of 1922. The old building became used solely as a grade school. G.W. Earle was the Superintendent of the prosperous district overseeing around 200+ students around one-third of those attending the new high school. The following year the school would celebrate the first class of graduates in the new building and also the largest in Preston history with eighteen students.

I wouldn’t consider Preston a small town school when in comparison to some of the others I’ve written about seemingly located out in the plains of Kansas. Most schools were only graced with a basketball team and some other clubs as activities but the Preston Wildcats had their own football team as well.

The school district was built on consolidation and it would be the same thing that would kill the district. Presumably, in the 1960s, the school would close down and become unified with USD 382 leaving the building to go to auction. It has sat abandoned since then making it vulnerable to fires, vandalism or demolition.

Gallery Below of Preston School

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