LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Nancy Ronnau orders Sola Wood Flowers to dye and arrange on her acreage near Marquette. She displays the bouquets and sets up her work station inside of a historic building.

“And when I dye flowers, I usually dye anywhere between four and six hundred at a time,” Nancy said.

The blossoms are made out of sola, or “shola” plants, which grow in tropical, humid climates. Women in Asia will cut the plants down and handcraft the petals from the material.

“They’ll shave it paper thin, and then each flower is hand-tied,” Nancy said. “I wanted to make sure it was a fair trade, and they do get paid very well to do it.”

Nancy holds classes on how to make arrangements inside of a building that hosted a much different classroom. Her shop for All Things Fancy used to be the District 89 schoolhouse.

Before Nancy’s husband and son renovated it, the previous owner of the property used the building for storage.

“The long narrow windows were gone, but you could see where they were,” said Kent Ronnau, Nancy’s husband. “Someone had taken the time to tin it up and kind of preserve it.”

The former owner contacted the Ronnaus to share that his five older siblings attended school there. It closed before he could do the same.

“When come time, he moved it over here,” Nancy said. “They were going to tear it down, and he said, ‘Nope, let me have that.’”

To do research, Nancy visited the Plainsman Museum and Hamilton County Historical Society in Aurora. Luckily, they have almost all of the photos of Hamilton County’s schoolhouses, including District 89, nicknamed the Powers Schoolhouse.

“Somebody went out in the 1920s, and they tried to photograph every one of these schools before they were either moved to become sheds, workshops, chicken coops or just torn down for lumber,” said Tina Larson, executive director of the Plainsman Museum.

Larson said she found a platted map in 1903 that shows the District 89 schoolhouse in the South Platte precinct, across the road from the Ronnaus’ property.

To honor the building’s history, Nancy displays a map of Hamilton County’s schoolhouse districts, next to an old photo of the original District 89 schoolhouse.

“It’s given me the opportunity to really meet some really amazing people in the community,” Nancy said. “Again, it’s a disposable world, and I love to repurpose and make good of that.”

People who are interested in visiting All Things Fancy or booking a Sola Wood Flower class can call Nancy at (402)670-0478 or reach out to her on Facebook.

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