Oldest School House, Grove of Educators

St. Augustine, Florida

The Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse opened as a school in 1788, and as an attraction in 1936. Essentially it exists to show visitors that America's early schoolhouses were small, dark, and primitive. A glamor mannequin stands at an upstairs window, representing a teacher.

Inside, another teacher, this one a robot, instructs a class of robot kids. We noticed a large chain wrapped around the building; the tour guide told us it was put there to keep the Schoolhouse from blowing apart during hurricanes.

Behind the school house is The Grove of Educators, an ambitious post-WWII attempt at pan-American unity that, according to its plaque, would "include a statue of a famous educator selected by each of the countries of the Western Hemisphere." It never really caught on; only five Latin America countries participated, and the last statue arrived in 1954.