Nestled on the corner of Sumter and West Carolina avenues is a beautiful white house with black shutters and a red roof.

The backyard features an old swing set – one of the first things children would see as they headed into Pauline Kornahrens’s kindergarten class back in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

Like many of Summerville’s houses, the Kornahrens house has a story.

Tucked away on the bottom floor of the residence is Pauline Kornahrens’s former classroom, one that holds idyllic memories of simpler times in Summerville, forming friendships, and a woman who served as a grandmother figure to her little students.

The memories came rushing back to a handful of those students when they held their 50th kindergarten class reunion at their former teacher’s house June 17.

The graduating kindergarten class of 1967 was the 18th group to graduate from Kornahrens Kindergarten.

Jordy Tupper, one of the organizers for the reunion, said the idea for a get-together started about three years ago.

Walking back into his former classroom, “I just went right back to 50 years ago,” he said.

Back then, kindergarten wasn't mandatory and wasn't part of the public school system, so it was run out of local residences.

The classroom still looks about the same and holds toys and trinkets from back in the day: kitchen toys, Play-Doh, plastic dinosaurs, building blocks, an aged xylophone, books and crayons. The former classmates remember sitting at the tiny chairs, desks and tables that still remain.

Kornahrens’s class was split into two rooms, one for 5-year-old kindergarten and one for 4-year-old kindergarten. Some of the returning students went both years at the school, some just one year.

One of the classroom walls also contains a framed copy of a Journal Scene article written by Barbara Hill.

“Memories of ‘Kornahrens Kindergarten’ still sweet for Summerville grandmother” was published in May 1996. According to Hill’s story, Pauline Kornahrens’s last kindergarten class graduated in 1977. It was her 28th graduation. Over the course of nearly three decades she taught about 1,000 Summerville 4- and 5-year-olds.

Kornahrens didn't need special training or background to hold a kindergarten in those days but she went to workshops in Columbia and got involved in curriculum. She got the county to evaluate her school and even had a safety inspection.

Her son, Don, and his wife, Cindy, bought her house in 1998. Cindy Kornahrens still lives at the house.

“She was very special. She was a great lady,” Cindy Kornahrens said. “And kids just loved her – and vice versa.”

Tupper said about 14 of the former classmates actually made it all the way through high school together. Some of them still live in the area, three have passed away, and others have since moved away and journeyed from out of state to attend the reunion.

Tupper said he went through all kinds of avenues to find some of the people – even calling their relatives to look them up. There were a couple of children in the class photo that Tupper said were hard to identify but they had pretty much everyone figured out to invite them to the reunion.

About 15 classmates showed up for the reunion, sharing stories about lining up at the classroom door, fighting over the swings on the swing set, and sitting in a circle for story time. There was a debate over whether the students brought their lunches to school with them or if school was only a half-day.

Tupper said he remembers if you were bad you had to go and sit on the front porch.

“I remember thinking my mom was going to ride by and see me,” he said.

A notable characteristic of the classroom was its low ceiling; many of the classmates agreed that everything seemed much bigger back then.

Sallie Limehouse Cheatham said she remembered her best friend from the class and how Kornahrens was like a grandmother to the children. Kornahrens passed away in 2004.

“She could be a disciplinarian, but she was a grandmother figure,” she said.

Pixie Long Wheat called it fond memories of a simpler time: “childhood, and how fun it can be, especially in Summerville.”

Robby Hair, now an Amelia Island, Florida resident, remembered Kornahrens's husband, Ed, who was a great master craftsman and built a lot of the material in her classroom, like chairs and easels. Hair recalled Ed wore bib overalls.

“He was always busy,” he said.

Mike Skardon, now an Alexandria, Virginia, resident, thought of the class as being like a second home, describing Summerville as “a wonderful environment” to grow up in.

“It was an extraordinary childhood,” he said.