Going back to school has never been this fun. Historical schoolhouses around the Beaver State have been converted to wedding venues, available to host couples who want to make some history of their own on their wedding day.
Built in 1913, Old Bybee Springs School House is perched a few miles from the town of Rogue River in Southern Oregon. Painstakingly restored from its dilapidated former condition, the intimate venue can host up to 40 people. Original woodwork, lighting and good old-fashioned charm on the inside opens to surrounding bucolic natural area with Evans Creek flowing alongside the property. “It’s an intimate, rustic, traditional place, built in a small but close community,” says owner Connie Hart.
With its freshly painted classical trim, 40-foot-high ceilings and grand chandeliers, The Old Schoolhouse in Newberg gorgeously transcends its former life as a 1920s-era schoolhouse. Situated on a working hazelnut orchard and farm amid the rolling hills of Oregon’s wine country, the 2,000-square-foot venue and can host up to 130 people indoors and up to 400 on the surrounding grounds.
History takes a funky turn in Bend’s Old St. Francis School. Built in 1936, the converted Catholic school combines the school’s history with the devil-may-care nature of McMenamins. While beers from the on-site brewery are one of the main attractions of the hotel, traces of the building’s original incarnation can be found throughout the school, with the classrooms converted into hotel rooms and some of the original lockers still in the hallways. “The kinds of couples who would love this space are the laid-back and casual people who want to relax and just have a good time with friends,” says sales coordinator Jackie Johnson.