On Saturday, the Giordanos, Tony and wife Renee, opened their renovated 167-year-old Frantz Schoolhouse in Eldred Township to allow people to come and learn what life was like in a one-room school.

An integral part of the community of Kunkletown from 1855 to 1945, students gathered in the one-room schoolhouse to learn reading, writing and arithmetic.

The couple bought the structure in 2015. Originally they planned to donate it to Eldred Township, but officials said maintaining it would be too much work.

Not wanting to see the building become more run down and vacant again, the Giordanos started to work to renovate the schoolhouse and preserve it. It has been a labor of love for the couple.

“Doing the research and looking into it, I just fell in love with it,” Tony Giordano said.

One of the first things most visitors do is to settle into one of the original wooden school desks with wrought-iron legs and then of take in all the old school books, the lessons on German written in chalk on the bulletin board. They also study the carvings of hearts on the desks where young students professed their love.

As Emily Gillen and her young daughter Adalyn took a seat, Gillen talked to her daughter about how different this classroom is compared to the one she will go to when she starts school.

Pat and Matt Held, who grew up in Kunkletown and now live in Danielsville, took the drive to see the school.

“I am amazed at all the books, and school items. It is really wonderful,” she said.

Another favorite for visitors was the “Dick and Jane” reading primers.

The advent of school buses in 1945 led to the closing and consolidation of all one-room school houses into a single one.

The Frantz School was among those that closed and laid in disrepair for years.