The Old Avoca Schoolhouse

In 1925, after a storm damaged the old wooden school building in Avoca, Nebraska a new two-story blond brick building was completed. The story goes that it took one man a whole year to single handedly lay every brick of the exterior walls.

It was documented in on old Rippley’s Believe It or Not book that in 1934 the Avoca High School boys basketball team beat the Syracuse High team by a score of 100 to 0. Back in those days there was a jump ball after every score instead of the non-scoring team being able to bring the ball in. Avoca evidently had the taller team that year.

In 1990, after living in a regular house in Omaha for 12 years, Debby, David, and their two young sons purchased the old Avoca school as a place to live, learn, play, and make music. It was there where the four of them formed the Greenblatt-Seay Quartet which performed numerous places around the midwest for several years.

Greenblatt & Seay still live in the wonderful old building but the boys are long gone. Debby and David each teach private music lessons on multiple instruments. They have run a concert series since 1990 that includes an annual fiddle contest. Every summer Debby offers fiddle day camps and frequently conducts fiddle workshops throughout the year. In addition to all this Debby and David operate a music publishing business there.