Jefferson Township No. 2 School
515 Havens Corners Road
Gahanna, OH
Gahanna youth will be able to experience life as a student in the 1800’s, thanks to the renovation of a one-room schoolhouse, at Lincoln Elementary School, 515 Havens Corners Road in Gahanna, OH.. Gahanna residents Fred Bowers and Jan Elzey spent several hours restoring this one-room schoolhouse. The old schoolhouse, also known as Jefferson Township No. 2 School, formerly was in front of the YMCA on U.S. Route 62 and had been converted into a garage. Records provided by the Franklin County Engineer’s Office, transcripts of interviews, and a photograph from 1899 itself proved that the building, which had been converted into a garage in 1927, was in fact a one-room schoolhouse built circa 1869. In November 2012, the building was dismantled brick by brick and slate by slate. Elzey, who’s retired from his own engineering company, spent 700 to 800 hours on the project himself. Elzey said the project was estimated to cost $200,000, but that was reduced to $64,000 by purchasing materials independently and by hiring seven subcontractors who provided work for free or at low prices. Inside the school are items that a one-room school would have contained, including a potbellied stove. People worked to acquire desks, map cases, teaching tools, and other antique objects that were authentic to the era to furnish the schoolhouse. A 4-by-5-foot stone even sits in front of the school’s entry because that’s what was original to the landscape. The roof comprises 1,060 pieces of slate, including many original pieces and 700 that were purchased.
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