Located on the property of the Andrew Baldwin House, 63 Main Street in North Stonington, CN, is an 1814 one-room schoolhouse. Originally located on Taugwonk Road in Stonington, the school was in operation until the 1920s. In the late twentieth century, it was moved to its current location by Fred and Alma Lampert, who owned the Baldwin House. The couple had also built a gristmill and a replica of the original blacksmith shop on the property and used the old carriage house as a museum of historical artifacts. Their property contained the foundation of the North Stonington village’s own lost schoolhouse and the 1814 school building was moved onto it. The Limperts furnished the schoolhouse based on a photograph they received from Marcia Bentley Thompson (1892-1990) that showed her on her first day as a teacher in 1911 in a one-room school in the Clarks Falls section of North Stonington. When the restoration was completed the Limperts named it the Marcia Thompson Schoolhouse. The schoolhouse, still without electricity was dedicated to Marcia Thompson, a lifelong teacher in North Stonington who began her six decades long career in 1911.
The Swancreek Township School House #8 (Swan Creek Township Hall)
Fulton County Fairgrounds
8514 OH-108
Wauseon, OH/ 43567
The Swancreek Township School House #8 was built sometime between 1868 and 1888 on the south side of County Road D “Raker Road” just east of Township Road 4. Mr. William Jefferson Lutz provided the land to the township for the school, and by 1913, when the United States Geological Society surveyed the area, it was referred to as “Lutz” school. In 1939, the children were moved to a more “modern” facility and the building was moved west on Road D to the corner of Township Road 5-1 and was utilized as the Swan Creek Township Hall, the home of the Swancreek Township Trustees. The building also served as one of the voting precincts for Swancreek Township into the turn of the twenty-first-century. In 2001, the trustees built a new township hall and the building was donated to the Fulton County Historical Society and is now preserved at the Fulton County Fairgrounds. Until the new township hall was built, the original outhouse behind the township hall was still the only bathroom facilities at the site. The Fulton County Historical Society also maintains Reighard’s Blacksmith Shop and the Heman Canfield Log Cabin at the Fulton County Fair Grounds. These buildings are open during the County Fair and sometimes for other special events.
The Fulton County Historical Society was established in 1883, the 13th oldest historical society in Ohio. The first Fulton County Pioneer Society president was Colonel Dresden Winfield Huston Howard. The Mission of the Fulton County Historical Society is to collect, preserve, and interpret artifacts and written records pertaining to Fulton County. The Fulton County Historical Society uniquely provides to a diverse audience, access to Fulton County’s local cultural history through a research facility, programs, demonstrations, and exhibits at its various sites. The Fulton County Historical Society maintains the Fulton County Historical Society Museum in Wauseon, OH. The Fulton County Historical Museum is housed in an 1868 Romanesque Revival two-story brick building rich in Fulton County history. The building served as Wauseon’s First High School from 1868 to 1897. In the middle of the 1896-1897 school year, the building had to be condemned because the foundation was sinking. In 1898 the former High School was renovated into a duplex and the Victorian porch was added.
In 1903 the Fulton County medical association bought the former High school and from about 1905 to 1930, it was the Fulton County’s first town hospital. Then in 1945 the former hospital was converted into four private apartments. In 1969 the building was donated to the Fulton County Historical Society. Today there are sixteen rooms housing a permanent collection and changing exhibits. Reportedly, there have been sightings of a shadow figure, a little girl and a little boy, and people have been touched and ghostly scents fill the air. The Fulton County Historical Society also maintains the Train Depot, located on Depot Street in downtown Wauseon, Ohio, and Reighard’s Blacksmith Shop, the Heman Canfield Log Cabin, and Swan Creek Township Hall at the Fulton County Fair Grounds. The Depot is open Tuesday evening May through August in conjunction with Cruise Night in downtown Wauseon and at other times for special occasions. The fairground buildings are open during the County Fair and sometimes for other special events.
Although the District 25 school house near New London, MN, was built in 1912, early settlers had established the school district in 1868 and held classes in a cabin. For 100 years the school building sat on Kandiyohi County Road 5 as a major landmark for people heading to farms and lakes in the northern part of the county. The school closed in 1963. The Lake Andrew Township board of directors used the building as the town hall until 2012. In 2011 the Lake Andrew town board decided the building was too expensive to maintain and opted to build a new town hall on the site and looked for a buyer for the old building. After a proposal to move the school to the Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center fell through, Eldora Peterson suggested buying the building and moving it to their farm. The proposal was quickly endorsed by the township in November of 2011 and the Peterson clan moved quickly to clear the plan with the county zoning office and then began planning for the move and restoration.
Today the old school/township hall sits on the farm of the late Earl and Eldora Peterson, and the five Peterson children are finishing a year-long project to restore the 101-year-old building, which involved moving the building from its original site, setting it on a cement slab, re-siding and painting the exterior, ripping out old plumbing fixtures, fixing and painting interior plaster walls, giving the hardwood floors a new luster, restoring a boarded-up window, finding light fixtures to replicate the original style, and snagging an old school bell at an auction to replace the one that was stolen from the building’s bell tower in the 1970s. The project cost about $20,000 and an incalculable number of hours of labor.
Moving day on July 17, 2012, was the most exciting and emotional day in the process for the Peterson family, as they grieved the departure of the school from its original post and eagerly watched as it moved down the road to the family farm. Community neighbors watched the caravan and have been eyeing the exterior work that’s been steadily progressing ever since. When the Petersons, which includes the four sisters – Nancy, Mary, Lorna and Helen – and brother Richard, began working on the interior and picking out wall paint colors they knew they wanted something warm and inviting. There are a small library with built-in shelves and cabinets on both sides, and a bay window at the end. The original blackboards still hang on two walls, with pull-down maps of the world anchored at the top. The original hardwood floor was cleaned up and given a coat of polyurethane, but the worn spots and scratches were not sanded out.
There are some new items to replace original features that disappeared over the years, like the light fixtures in the classroom and the bell from the outside alcove above the porch. They got into a bidding war for the bell with another interested party at an auction in Hills. After winning the bid they hauled it home in their van. It fits perfectly and has a solid ring when the red rope is pulled. Throughout the renovation project the goal was to preserve the original integrity and look of the building. Restoring the old school is one way to honor the dedication those early farm families had to provide an education for their children and the care they took to build a new school to last into the future. They haven’t thought about future uses for the building. But, at the very least, it will be available for viewing by appointment. The location is north of Willmar on Kandiyohi County Road 5, or one mile south of Kandiyohi County Road 40 on County Road 5.
North Collins Schoolhouse #8 History Center & Museum
2101 School Street
North Collins, NY 14111
Schooling from the mid-1800s to mid-1900s was much different from what today’s education system entails. Eight grades of students with one teacher were all packed into one room.North Collins’ one-room Schoolhouse No. 8, at 2101 School St., North Collins, NY, still stands as a replica to how classes were before smart phones and central air conditioning. Originally built in 1857, four years before the start of the Civil War, Schoolhouse #8 was one of several one-room schoolhouses that educated students in the North Collins area for almost a century and is the only one left in North Collins out of ten. The schoolhouse was open from 1857 to 1950 and became dilapidated over the years at its original location about six miles away on Ketchum Road in Lawtons. The roof had damage with gaping holes, and the flooring was mostly done for.
It took a village to save the schoolhouse. The idea began with then-Councilman Richard Taczkowski in the late 1990s. Taczkowski formed a not-for-profit corporation, obtained a $20,000 historic preservation grant from the state to begin resurrecting the building, and gained ownership of the property. In the early 2000s, the dilapidated building – with the hole in the roof and rotted beams – was moved to its present location to provide better security and capitalize on existing parking. Contributors raised an additional $30,000 for renovations, and over 500 people helped in all, whether through money or volunteering. It finally opened as the Schoolhouse 8 History Center and Museum in July of 2005. The one-room building, painted a gleaming white, today sits quietly across from the public library in the Village of North Collins. The schoolhouse history center and museum is open in the summer every Sunday until October.
Schoolhouse #8 History Center and Museum is dedicated to preserving this one-room rural schoolhouse, complete with period appropriate furnishings, teaching aids, and memorabilia. Schoolhouse No. 8 today has the historic desks with artifacts, photos, and original schoolhouse items. Three cabinets contain hundreds of items, including flash cards, books, and chalk also compiled from the other one-room schoolhouses once in town. The room hosts rows of wooden desks with holes for ink wells and a larger desk in the front of the class for recitation. The history center and museum includes photos of attendees in some of the thirteen area schoolhouses, as there were one every five miles. The photographs hang on the walls picturing students grouped around their teachers at many of the one-room schoolhouses, including one from Schoolhouse 8. The restored building matches much of the time-era necessities. Out back is “a deluxe model outhouse – a 3-holer,” with a Sears Roebuck catalog inside. Together, the furnishings and materials tell the schoolhouse’s story, even if very little is original to the school.
St. John Township in Lake County, IN, has a hidden gem – a school that children can’t wait to enter. Since 2003, more than 8,500 fourth-graders in St. John Township have visited the 1800 School House tucked away behind the St. John Township Trustee’s Office at 1515 U.S. 30 in Schererville. Formerly known as St. John Township District School #2, the 1800 School House was one of 12 one-room schools serving Schererville, St. John, and Dyer. Originally at the corner of Old St. John Road and 77th Avenue, the school opened in 1853 and closed in 1907. The building was sold and moved to the Ilus Wood farm in Dyer, where it was used as a storage shed. Discovered in 1993 and moved to the St. John Township grounds, it was restored and re-dedicated May 14, 1994. School field trips started April 22, 2003. The Schererville Historical Society was instrumental in opening the building to the public. The school house was a former meeting place for the Schererville Historic Society, but the group decided it would be a great learning experience for the kids. The Schererville, Dyer and St. John historical societies now own the old school.
Walking into the school house is like walking back into what it was really like to go to school in the 1800’s. The desks are similar to the actual desks of that day and there are pieces of the old school house – like the blackboard – that are actually restored pieces from the original school house. With a donation from the St. John Township Trustee of about $1,000 for supplies, shop teachers at Lake Central High School hand cut and assembled the desks. Volunteers return to the classroom every spring and fall to educate Lake Central School Corporation’s fourth-graders about what it would have been like to attend school back in the 1800’s. Fourth grade students from St. John Township are able to experience a typical school day, as it was in 1872. Since fourth-graders traditionally study Indiana history, a visit to a one-room school in their own community offers the students an ideal living history lesson, using 1872 era curricula, games, and activities. The school is currently located behind the St. John Township Trustees’ Office and Community Center.
St. Joseph’s Mission Schoolhouse for African-American Children
11964 Mandarin Road
Jacksonville, FL 32223
Following the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, new opportunities arose for black children to receive a formal education; yet because of racial prejudice, black and white students could not be taught together. Among those committed to teaching black children in post-war Florida were the Sisters of St. Joseph, members of a Roman Catholic religious order from Le Puy, France, who established their first Mandarin school in 1868. Other equally successful schools were founded by African Americans themselves, Northern missionaries, and the Freedmen’s Bureau. The last remaining one-room schoolhouse in Duval County, FL, was built in 1898 specifically for the education of black Mandarin residents. This schoolhouse was originally located on the St. Joseph’s Church property at the corner of Loretto and Old St. Augustine Roads. There, the Sisters began their Mandarin Mission, opening a free school for both black and white students in the area.
It is not known how long the schoolhouse remained in use. Based on records from the decade surrounding its construction, it is likely that approximately 25 students would have attended classes within the schoolhouse. In 1943, the building was given to a school employee, Nathaniel Long, who moved it to St. Augustine Rd. and utilized it for a variety of uses. When Mr. Long died in the mid 1990’s, his daughter sold it to Dee and Peter Brown, who moved it to the south end of Mandarin Rd. Finally, in 2015, the Mandarin Museum and Historical Society partnered with Councilman Matt Schellenberg, the Mandarin Community Club, and the City of Jacksonville Parks and Recreation Department to relocate it to Walter Jones Historical Park. This project would not have been possible without the generous financial support of the Rotary Club of Mandarin and private donors in the community. This special building now serves as an educational venue highlighting the historic aspects of this one-room schoolhouse and others like it that are now gone. A permanent exhibition tells the fascinating story of the French Catholic Sisters who came to America and honors African-American families of Mandarin, whose drive for learning surpassed all challenges put before them.
It’s Best to Wait: Middle School Daters More Likely to Dropout, Use Drugs by Brian Krans, Healthline (March 19, 2013)
Middle school students who habitually date are twice as likely to use alcohol and drugs and often have worse study habits, prompting researchers to say that ‘dating should not be considered a rite of passage in middle school.’
Ah, young love.
Tweens are practically bursting with feelings of possibility and new-found joy when they discover that “special someone.” Then again, when you’re fresh out of puberty, love is awkward and can be heartbreaking.
River Hill One-Room Schoolhouse in East Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania, is located near Mt. Wolf at the intersection of Wago Road and Board Road. The school lane down to Wago Road passes on the right side of the schoolhouse and Board Road passes on the left side of the schoolhouse; half-way up the hillside. The River Hill Schoolhouse goes back to at least 1860. It appears at the same location, on an 1860 map. Children not living in the town limits of Mount Wolf were required to go there. Initially the children in the area of Mt. Wolf Station likely attended River Hill Schoolhouse; at least until a schoolhouse was built on Holland Street in the Village of Mt. Wolf by 1876. The name Holland Street was later changed to Walnut Street in Mt. Wolf. The at least 155-year-old, brick River Hill One-Room Schoolhouse was converted to a house and still stands as a private residence. This schoolhouse in East Manchester Township is not to be confused with another River Hill One-Room Schoolhouse that existed in Lower Chanceford Township for a short time during the late 1800s.
The Lincoln School is a historic former one-room schoolhouse at 8 Orchard Road, set at the southwest corner of Orchard and County Roads in rural southern Acton, Maine. Built in 1884, it is the best-preserved of the town’s surviving district school buildings, and was its last active district school, closed in 1957. The school was built in 1884 to serve the students of District# 2, one of 14 districts in town at the time, replacing an older building. It is a single-story wood frame structure, measuring 21 by 28 feet, with a gable roof and clapboard siding. Two small additions extend the building to the rear. Its main facade, facing east, is symmetrically arranged, with a single door flanked by sash windows, and a third window in the gable above. The door opens into a vestibule area spanning the width of the building, with two doors providing access to the classroom. Privies are located in the first addition, and a woodshed in the second.
A few years after its construction, district schools were brought under control of the town (having previously been managed by an elected committee from the district), and a long-running process of consolidation was begun. The first district schools to be closed were in 1895. This school, however, remained open, receiving necessary modernization (addition of the privies and woodshed) following the introduction of state-level standards in 1909. Surviving into the 20th century, Acton’s last three district schools, this 19th century one-room schoolhouse among them, were closed in 1957 when a new multi-grade elementary school opened. The building has since been used as a meeting place for the local 4-H club. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
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