Story of a Building
According to a legend, in the spring of 1904 a phaeton drawn by a pair of horses came to the place where the "Estate" is located. Several county officials dressed in frock coats went out of it. Having inspected the area, they began establishing the wooden, pulling the laces, and making some measurements. Soon the carts harnessed with oxen and loaded with stones, lime, sand and clay like started arriving. Soon construction works began involving both local farmers and outsider masters.
From Zelena railway station the brick and wood arrived from some distant places. The rural school was built. With the onset of cold weather the walls were erected and the roof was covered with metal tin. In spring 1905 the work resumed. The wooded floor was laid, the windows and doors were installed, and in late summer the building was ready to receive the first schoolchildren. Despite the fact that the school was considered secular, along with teachers some disciplines (like the law of God and some others) were taught by the priests of St. Nicholas and Ascension Holy Protection churches.
During the First World War and the Civil War and revolutionary events the school was temporarily closed. The classes there resumed only after establishment of the Bolsheviks regime and lasted until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. After the occupation of the village of Petrove by Germans, since autumn 1941 the school building housed the flying unit of Wehrmacht.
The pasture was equipped as a field airdrome (where currently the garden is planted). The fascist Messershmidts and Fokewolfs were based at the airdrome. They carried out the flights to the front lines with deadly bombs on board. This situation continued until the autumn of 1943.
With the approaching of the front line to Petrove, the Germans established a military hospital in the building, and after the village liberation the building housed the flight unit of the Red Army that has been deployed there till the end of 1944. After the war and the onset of peace-time, the building was renovated and the schoolchildren occupied it again. Initially the seven-years, and then the eight-years school during the time of its postwar existence gave way into the live to many young residents of Petrove.
Even now some of them come to the school walls and recall the past with gratitude and respect. At the beginning of the 2000’s the demographic situation in Petrove has changed somewhat, and the eight-years school suspended its educational activities. The building remained empty for over seven years. During this time it went into decline, overgrew with bushes, and only a dilapidated lace of the brickwork was vaguely reminiscent of old architectural beauty of the building. However, the building has changed its appearance over time. In 2008 it was purchased by a former graduate of this school, I.P. Zhylko.
And again, as once back in the late 1904, the construction and restoration projects started, the attic floor was build, the internal alterations were made and the adjacent territory was arranged. And, most importantly, an apple garden was planted on the former pasture ground and at the by-school territory. Today the building walls shine with the pink variety of renewed bricks, and the Estate and apple garden territory joyfully greet the residents and guests of Petrove.
