Polly’s Schoolhouse, Pipe Creek, TX

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Polly’s Schoolhouse

2320 Bear Creek Rd.

Pipe Creek, TX 78063

“Polly’s Schoolhouse,” a historic one-room schoolhouse built in 1892 by Jose Policarpio “Polly” Rodriguez, who also donated the land to the state. During its era, it provided the community with an educational center and a place to hold community and other cultural activities. The Schoolhouse was transferred from Bandera Independent School District.  This small historical treasure was later transferred to Polly Texas Pioneer Association.  The Polly Texas Pioneer Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of the historic settlement of Polly, Texas, in southeast Bandera County. Founded by its namesake, this village is one of the last historical Tejano towns still remaining in Texas.

     To date, the Society has successfully restored the historic Polly’s Chapel, cleaned up and improved Polly’s Cemetery, and placed historical signage around Polly, Texas.  In February of 2016, Texas Tejano contacted and negotiated with Charles Rothe and Associates to survey the property to complete the title transfer which was done at no cost. By June, TexasTejano.com prepared and executed a public relations and marketing campaign along with landscaping plans to raise awareness of the project. Radio coverage was received and great newspaper coverage was had in much of the hill country and San Antonio area.  Once restored, the schoolhouse will serve as a community center, micro museum and will provide a children’s outdoor interactive learning center. It will also be registered as an official Texas State Historical landmark.

Tipperary School Wedding Chapel, Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village, Murfreesboro, TN

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Tipperary School Wedding Chapel

Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village

312 South Front Street

Murfreesboro, TN 37129

The wedding chapel at Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village near downtown Murfreesboro, TN, was at one time better known as the Tipperary School in LaVergne, TN, from 1915 till 1925.  The Tipperary School was located on present Waldron Road near the intersection with Jones Blvd. about one mile south the railroad in LaVergne. Presently, this area is mostly industrial.  The Tipperary School was first named the Gambill School in honor of School Director Charles H. Gambill. Well, this was 1915 when the song, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” was popular, and the kids unofficially named their schoolhouse “Tipperary.” The name stuck.

     On July 6, 1915, George Noe and Allen Sanford and wife Lillie Sanford deeded one acre to the Rutherford County Board of Education.  The Tipperary School was a one-room, one-teacher school building. The building was a rectangular, weather-boarded structure with a tin roof. Three windows lined each side and a small window was at the back near the teacher’s desk. At the front of the room was a pot-bellied stove. Water was carried from the nearby Pearson and Waldron farms.  The first teacher was Audrey Williams Moore. Other teachers over the years included Ruth Omahundra, George Williams, Jo Lena Bond, Gutha Williams, Fannie Bell Paul Taylor. The last teacher in 1925 was Hazel Thomas.

     Class size varied according to seasons for planting and harvesting.  Students even brought younger brothers and sisters to school. All students were required to be prompt, neat in appearance, polite to the teachers and to each other, and responsible for the school building and grounds.  One form of punishment for an infraction was the good old fashioned “write-off in a legible hand.” Write-offs were considered a severe punishment because it took twice as long to write-off.  The students either walked or rode their horses to school. Gutha Williams remembered one moment of crisis when a student drank a quantity of horse liniment. Mrs. Williams resourcefully gave the child a handful of lard to eat. At another time, a boy rode his pony down the aisle of the schoolroom.

     Teachers were expected to maintain rigid discipline, dress appropriately, engage in community activities, attend church regularly, and refrain from social engagements with men. For all this they received $40-$50 a month which included $18 for board.  The Tipperary School closed in 1925 with the students being transferred to the LaVergne School near the Old Nashville Pike.  But the Tipperary School wasn’t finished.  At times vacant, Tipperary School was a home, a store house and even a shed for livestock and hay.  In March 1976, Mrs. Robert Carrothers, the owner, donated the old Tipperary School building to the brand new Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village in Murfreesboro, where it was converted to a chapel.  A steeple was added along with stained glass windows, an antique organ, and church pews; all of which have made the former Tipperary School a picturesque setting for weddings.

Village School, Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village, Murfreesboro, TN

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Village School

Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village

312 South Front Street

Murfreesboro, TN 37129

The South is full of history, and in Tennessee, people love preserving that history to be experienced again and again by all the generations to come. In Middle Tennessee, there’s even a small village tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the modern world, and it preserves that old-time village charm absolutely perfectly.  Visitors can talk to the blacksmith as he’s making new horseshoes or mosey in to the general store to hear all of the village gossip from the locals, and this is all possible during a one-of-a-kind experience at Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village right in the heart of downtown Murfreesboro, TN, close to the city center.

     Historic Cannonsburgh Village is a historically preserved village that represents approximately 100 years of early Tennessee life from the 1830s to the 1930s and preserves the culture, history, and style of the century from 1830 to 1930.  Visitors are able to explore on their own for free. The village features many historic buildings. Within the village are a gristmill, a telephone operator’s house, the University House, the Leeman House, a museum, a caboose, the Wedding Chapel, a doctor’s office, a general store, a blacksmith’s shop, a well, a school house, and other points of pioneering interest.  The one-room schoolhouse building shows that even the 19th-century settlers were determined to teach their kids. All grades were taught in the one room and girls sat on one side and boys on the other.

Keystone Victorian schoolhouse, Keystone, SD

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Keystone Victorian schoolhouse

Keystone Area Historical Society Museum

410 3rd Street

Keystone, South Dakota 57751

The city of Keystone, SD, was founded in 1891 and named after the busy Keystone Mine.  The Keystone Area Historical Society was founded on March 8, 1983. Since Keystone is brimming with history, the society’s dream was to open and maintain a museum preserving that history and telling the many stories. That dream came to life when the old Keystone Schoolhouse, built in 1897-1900 by Eli Shomaker, with roof of wood shingles, became available. When the Keystone Historical Museum was established, the protection and preservation of Keystone’s history, buildings, and people was assured for future generations.

     The Keystone Historical Museum in historic downtown Keystone at 410 3rd Street is housed in a three-story Victorian Schoolhouse. The school was originally for 300 students, but with the rise and fall of mining activity enrollment never actually reached 300. Because of the size of the building, it has housed many activities; fraternal club rooms, a Catholic church, funeral parlor, dance hall, movie theatre, city hall, police station and today, a museum. Stepping into the museum is like reliving the past.  The large rural Keystone School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and became the Keystone Historical Museum in 2018.

Bennett Schoolhouse, Salters, SC

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Bennett Schoolhouse

Williamsburg County

Salters, SC

     The rural Bennett School in Williamsburg County, SC, was built in the early 1900s (1910s or 1920s) with funds from a local man named William Bennett McCullough who had lived in the area all of life before starting a large family of his own.  McCullough was born on Ox Swamp along the Black River in Williamsburg, SC, on June 29, 1853.  His ancestors had come to the area in the 1700s from England and began to cultivate the fertile lands of the inland swamp that were productive for indigo and cotton planting.  McCullough would live out his life in the region, eventually appearing in records in the village of Salters, SC, located just a few miles from where he was born.  Salters was established by a prominent planter, William Salters, who first appeared in local land records around 1806.

     In December of 1874, McCullough, age 21, married Caroline Elizabeth Salters, age 16 or 17, a descendant of the town’s namesake.  They would birth and raise eleven children in the community, beginning many new branches that still extend deep into Williamsburg County today.  It is suspected that it was McCullough’s large family that inspired him to build this schoolhouse just outside the town of Salters.  Prior to this, community children would learn in private homes or sometimes in church buildings.  But the beginning of the 1900s brought new opportunities for rural school children as schools like this one began to open.

      In the late 1910s or early 1920s, Bennett McCullough offered to put up the money for the lumber and parts needed to build this school, and, as a sign of gratitude, the community came to call it the Bennett School in his honor.  In records from the 1922 through 1926 school years, there is mention of its schoolteacher. Wilhelmina McCullough Amaker, likely a niece or cousin of Bennett, a widow who taught community children alongside her own son, James O. Amaker, here.  The interior of the building had a large classroom with a partial wall that created a separate but smaller communal area.  The schoolhouse was a one-teacher school, meaning that Mrs. Amaker would teach all ages together in the same room by herself.

     Bennett McCullough passed away in 1928, a few years after the school opened, but it continued to serve as a school until at least 1935.  Unfortunately, its days as a school building were short-lived.  A larger brick school had been built closer to town in the 1920s.  Sometime between 1935 and 1949, the schools were consolidated into the brick building, and the Bennett was closed for good.  After that, it was converted into living space, offering shelter for many years to tenant families who farmed tobacco on the surrounding land.  Eventually, it was put out to pasture and today is used for storage.

Peabody School, Middletown, RI

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Peabody School

195 Third Beach Road

Middletown, RI

Built as a one-room academy in 1794, the Peabody School was modernized in the 1800s and eventually transformed into a summer residence in 1929. Within walking distance to several beaches, this old one-room schoolhouse has been reimagined and renovated into a sweet single-family home.  The two doorways that still lead into the home were originally installed as separate entrances for girls and boys, each opening into their own cloak room. Today, one of these remains as a coat room while the other has been enlarged and reoutfitted as a dining room.

     As one walks through the entry into the rest of the home, there are old-growth heart pine floors and beams, and the tan burlap that adorns the living room walls is a nod to the bulletin boards of early classrooms. The most major update to the old red schoolhouse came sometime in the ’70s with the addition of a kitchen at the rear of the home, and the insertion of a second story. Without the renovation, the single-family would lack one of its most unique features—a bright, airy bedroom with a ceiling that opens up in the center, revealing the inside of the belfry. Outside, among the dogwoods, weeping willows, and a stone-lined stream called Paradise Brook, there’s proof of one more small renovation project.  A petite barn has been repurposed as a bonus living room or private studio.

New Hope School, Paradise, PA

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

New Hope School

1921 Mine Rd.

Paradise, PA 17562

The New Hope School near Nickel Mines, PA, in southern Lancaster County is the school that was built in place of the West Nickel Mines School, an Amish one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, a village in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where a shooting occurred and five girls were murdered. On October 2, 2006, the gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV took hostages and shot ten girls (aged 6–13), killing five, before dying by suicide in the schoolhouse.  The emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation in the Amish community’s response was widely discussed in the national media.

     The West Nickel Mines School was demolished the following week, on October 12, 2006. The site was left as a quiet pasture, and a new one-room schoolhouse, the New Hope School, was built at a different location, near the original site, about two football fields away. It opened on April 2, 2007, precisely six months after the shooting. The new school was intentionally built as “different” as possible from the original, including the style of the flooring.

Pottsville Schoolhouse, Pottsville Historical Museum and Pioneer Town, Merlin, OR

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Pottsville Schoolhouse

Pottsville Historical Museum and Pioneer Town

2400 Pleasant Valley Rd.

Merlin, OR 97532

Pottsville Historical Museum and Pioneer Town is a museum and is located at 2400 Pleasant Valley Rd.,

Merlin in Josephine County, Oregon.  Founded by Eugene “Debbs” Potts to commemorate Oregon’s Centennial in 1959, Pottsville is home to thousands of items commemorating Oregon’s history, from its legislative halls to the local logging woods. Pottsville is the “Home of Oregon Memories.”  Visitors can step back in time with two museums, a Pioneer Town, and lots of Outdoor Exhibits.  They will journey to a time where life was simple, but hard, and time slowed down as they wander through this little town and see an accumulation of the past with buildings and items commemorating Oregon’s history.  There is a historic schoolhouse where they walk inside and experience the way learning was taught at this time. Items include desks, books, benches and more.

Howland Chapel School, Heathsville, VA

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Howland Chapel School

VA 201 and VA 642

Heathsville, Virginia

The Howland Chapel School is a historic school building for African-American students located near Heathsville, an unincorporated community in Northumberland County, Virginia.  The simple building was erected by local carpenters and laborers in 1867, and is a one-story, gable fronted frame structure measuring approximately 26 feet by 40 feet, featuring board-and-batten siding and distinctive bargeboards with dentil soffits. The interior has a single room divided by a later central partition formed by sliding, removable doors. The building, Northumberland County’s oldest schoolhouse, is a rare, little-altered Reconstruction-era schoolhouse built to serve the children of former slaves and one of the earliest public schoolhouses on the Northern Neck.

     The construction was funded by New York educator, reformer, and philanthropist Emily Howland (1827-1929), for whom the building is named. Howland, who came to Northumberland County at the close of the Civil War, purchased land for African Americans to farm and taught school in a small log structure. Her classes were so popular that the present, more substantial structure, designed to serve also as a chapel, was soon erected. Miss Howland returned to the North in 1870, but she and members of the local African American community financially supported and maintained the school for the next fifty years.

     After that, the Northumberland County school board took control of the property. It continued to be used as a schoolhouse until 1958.  The building also served as a Baptist house of worship from 1867 to circa 1920. A cottage where the teacher lived also remains on the grounds.  The Howland Chapel School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, and has gone on to serve as a museum, community center, and adult-education facility.  It is a poignant reminder of the various efforts of idealistic northerners to assist with the education of the children of Virginia’s former slaves.

Gant School House, Chisholm Trail Museum, Kingfisher, OK

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Gant School House

Chisholm Trail Museum

605 Zellers Avenue

Kingfisher, OK

The Chisholm Trail Museum in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, is located along the historic Chisholm Trail, once one of the greatest cattle trails in the world. Visitors are invited to stop by to learn about the history of the trail and experience the pioneer village, home to two log cabins, a one-room schoolhouse, a church, and the first bank built in Kingfisher.  The museum also features exhibits on early Kingfisher history, including commerce and industry. Located across the street and included in the admission is a tour of Horizon Hill, once home to the third Territorial Governor of Oklahoma, Abraham Jefferson Seay.  The pioneer village boasts 5 historic structures—Original Kingfisher Bank, Harmony Church, Jail Cell, Dalton Cabin, Cole Cabin, and Gant School House.

     From the start the settlers of Oklahoma made provisions for education. The proceeds from sections six and thirty-six of each township were reserved for schools. There were country schools every three miles with names like Pleasant Valley, Good Hope, or in this case Gant.  Gant School was named for Edgar B. Gant on whose homestead four miles north and four west of Kingfisher the school was located.  Construction of the original school building cost $100. The furniture consisted of a wood heating stove and homemade benches and tables which served as desks and chairs. The school did not have a uniform set of books. Each pupil used what they had at home so class was taught from a variety of books from several different states.

     School patrons hauled wood for heating fuel from the north side of the Cimarron River. The older boys cut the wood into suitable lengths. The first teacher was Miss Nannie March, niece of Territorial Governor A.J. Seay. She earned $25 per month and out of this she paid someone five cents to make fires in the school stove each morning.  The first term began on the first Monday in 1894 and lasted for three months. In 1899 the term was extended to four months. In 1902, voters passed an $800 bond issue to build the second school house which opened on December 24, 1902. This is the building now on display on the museum grounds.

     The school had a yard fence of a single strand of heavy wire drawn through holes in the posts. A stile was added later. A cinder walk outlined with bricks kept people out of the mud. The coal house holding corn cobs and coal for morning fires sat in back of the school.  Oklahoma was being settled just as the United States was beginning the shift from a rural to an urban nation. School consolidation did not occur here as quickly as it did on the east coast. The last school term at the Gant School was 1939-1940.