In the 1860s or 1870s, a small piece of land was leased from Solomon Rickenbach by the newly formed Bern Public School District, and the Rickenbach schoolhouse was built (below). The school is located just east of Jacob Rickenbach's stone house, and directly in front of Curtin Rickenbach's house, along Cross Keys Road. The schoolhouse was also within shouting distance of the drydock. Rickenbach School was in use up until 1931, when the property was given back to Curtin Rickenbach, who had purchased the land from Solomon's son Jacob Rickenbach (d. 1912), or Jacob's daughter, in the early 1900s. Today the schoolhouse is privately owned, and is used as a music studio.

Below is what the inside of the schoolhouse looks like today. The door next to the piano is one of two cloakrooms (one for boys and the other for girls), near the entrance of the schoolhouse.

The front wall of the schoolhouse (left) held remnants of a chalkboard as recently as twenty years ago. When Curtin's wife Jennie died in 1961, the schoolhouse still contained the original desks and fixtures. This room was later used as a smokehouse to cure and dry meat, so the plaster walls and wood floors were somewhat damaged. It was meticulously restored in the 1980s by the owner. The old plaster was removed and the floors stripped and varnished.

The photograph below is not of the Rickenbach School, but of the nearby Union Schoolhouse, in the same district, probably dating from the early 1900s. It shows what the Rickenbach Schoolhouse interior must have looked like when it was in use. Note the chalkboard, wood floors, and desks, all similar to what was used in the Rickenbach School. The front was adorned with paintings of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, with the Capitol building between them.

The original maple floor (below, left) is in excellent condition after a careful restoration. The schoolhouse interior is a working music studio (below, right). Some of the original plaster which covered the brick walls may still be seen.

Photographs by Tom Rickenbach, Union School photograph courtesy of Mimi Schmitt