She’s most unconventional.

On June 20 the old gal gets to blow out 100 candles at a centennial celebration planned in her honor.

Sitting jauntily at a diagonal on a full city block of land, the red brick edifice is visually the most arresting building in town - a prime example of Picturesque Gothic Revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

For the first time visitor to Bartlett who accidently stumbles on the building while driving around checking out the sights, the impulse is to stop the car, gape in amazement and gasp.

The imposing lines of the 16-sided building make it look like a city hall, a courthouse or even a fortress. The building is a bold testament to its architect A. O. Watson of Austin. Watson designed a number of Texas buildings, including Main Hall at Texas A&M in 1871, the Main building at Baylor University in 1886, and the Comanche County and Milam County courthouses in 1890.

When it was built it was actually Bartlett’s third school. It featured 10 large classrooms, three offices and an auditorium. A huge bell tower at the third floor level held a plantation bell that tolled the hour for students to be in class. The building cost $21,000 to build.

When it opened for the first day of class on Sept. 13, 1909 the enrollment was 250 and included grades 1- 11. From 1917 to 1966 it housed grades first through eighth. In 1966 it was used for the primary grades only until it closed in the spring of 1988.

Melba Schwertner, president of the Bartlett Activities Center that now maintains the building said the Bartlett school board of trustees voted late in 1988 to tear the building down.

“But a citizens movement called Save Our School promoted a campaign to rescue the building,” Ms. Schwertner said. “That citizens group later became the Bartlett Activities Center in 1991. The school board still owns the property, but they gave us a 99-year lease.”

Ms. Schwertner said the Bartlett Activity Center Inc. is a non-profit corporation with two purposes. The fist is to preserve the old grammar school as a Central Texas landmark. The second is to put the building back into service to benefit the citizens of Bartlett.

Classrooms on the first floor have been converted into museums with artifacts that go back to the 1800s. An ancient safe that once belonged to the railroad stands cheek and jowl next to the typeface and forms for the last edition of Bartlett’s newspaper. A glass display case holds period attire of an earlier era.

Classroom had cloakrooms. Anyone under 60 would not likely remember cloakrooms in schools. It’s where students hung winter coats, mufflers and galoshes and stored their lunch.

The second grade classroom has been converted into an elegant parlor. An oil painting over the mantle piece depicts Jewel Cowart Ford - a second-grade teacher who died in 2004 at age 100.

“She was very well loved by her students,” Ms. Schwertner said.

The parlor is rented out for receptions, teas and other social occasions.

Two huge rooms at the rear of the building have been converted into a kitchen and pantry and a dining room. They are rented out for group activities like class reunions, family reunions and club events.

On the second floor the auditorium with its 16 huge windows was the scene of many a school play or assembly, said Johnnye Grisham, a BAC board member.

“I attended from 1940 to 1947,” she said. “My eighth-grade graduation here in the 1947 and I had my first formal dress for the occasion,” she said. “When I had to get up and march across that stage to get my diploma I was so nervous. The room was jammed with people.”

She said she has good memories going to the Bartlett school.

“They were happy wonderful years. It was fun,” she said. “We had carefree days. You left home in the morning and your mother never worried. You got on your bicycle and rode out to the creek after school.”

“Mr. Grigsby, the janitor, went up in the belfry and rang the bell every day when it was time for school to start. You were in trouble if you were late.”

Board member Kathy Jones said she didn’t attend Bartlett but her mother began school in the old building in 1926 and finished the 11th-grade in 1937.

“The 100th anniversary festivities on Saturday, June 20, will be a very nice event,” Ms. Schwertner said.

Hours for visitation are from 2-4 p.m. the fourth Saturday of every month.