Charter Oak Schoolhouse

Last updated
Charter Oak Schoolhouse
Charter Oak Schoolhouse.jpg
Front of the schoolhouse
USA Illinois location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nearest city Schuline, Illinois
Coordinates 38°5′21″N89°47′38″W / 38.08917°N 89.79389°W / 38.08917; -89.79389 Coordinates: 38°5′21″N89°47′38″W / 38.08917°N 89.79389°W / 38.08917; -89.79389
Built1873
ArchitectWilliam M. Holcomb
Architectural styleOctagon Mode
NRHP reference No. 78001181 [1]
Added to NRHPOctober 11, 1978

The Charter Oak Schoolhouse is a historic octagonal school building in Schuline, Illinois, located on the Evansville/Schuline Road between Schuline and Walsh. Built in 1873, it served as a public primary school until 1953. The school was one of 53 octagonal schoolhouses built in the United States, of which only three survive. The building is now used as a museum by the Randolph County Historical Society and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Contents

Architecture

The one-room schoolhouse is a one-story building with an octagonal plan. The building's foundation is made of locally quarried limestone, while the building's walls were built with red brick. A louvered belfry, which may not have been added until 1883, tops the building's low-sloping roof. Courses of corbelled brick along the roof line form the building's cornice. The vestibule at the school's entrance is sided with clapboard and rests on a concrete foundation. 53 octagonal schoolhouses were built in the United States, of which the school was the only one built in Illinois. [2] The school is one of three of these octagonal schoolhouses which is still standing. [3]

History

Built in 1873, the Charter Oak Schoolhouse was the third public school built at its location. The first school building was a simple log structure built in 1848. The second school building, a frame structure constructed in 1863, was destroyed by a tornado, necessitating the construction of a new building. [3] Contractor William H. Holcomb constructed the third building at a cost of $1000. The school's teacher, Daniel Bishop Ling, proposed the construction of an octagonal building, which he believed would allow more light into the classroom and be more likely to survive severe winds. In addition to classes, the school building also hosted local meetings, competitions, and political events during its tenure as a school. The school closed in 1953, as did all other one-room schoolhouses in the area. The Randolph County Historical Society purchased the building in 1960 and subsequently restored it and converted it to an interpretive center of the history of the one-room schoolhouse. [2] The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 11, 1978. [1]

Related Research Articles

One-room school Small rural school in which students of different ages are mixed in a single classroom

One-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room. There, a single teacher taught academic basics to several grade levels of elementary-age children. While in many areas one-room schools are no longer used, it is not uncommon for them to remain in developing nations and rural or remote areas. Examples include remote parts of the American West, the Falklands, and the Shetland Islands.

Chana School United States historic place

Chana School is a Registered Historic Place in Ogle County, Illinois, in the county seat of Oregon, Illinois. One of six Oregon sites listed on the Register, the school is an oddly shaped, two-room schoolhouse which has been moved from its original location. Chana School joined the Register in 2005 as an education museum.

George Furbeck House United States historic place

The George W. Furbeck House is a house located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1897 and constructed for Chicago electrical contractor George W. Furbeck and his new bride Sue Allin Harrington. The home's interior is much as it appeared when the house was completed but the exterior has seen some alteration. The house is an important example of Frank Lloyd Wright's transitional period of the late 1890s which culminated with the birth of the first fully mature early modern Prairie style house. The Furbeck House was listed as a contributing property to a U.S. federal Registered Historic District in 1973 and declared a local Oak Park Landmark in 2002.

William H. Copeland House United States historic place

The William H. Copeland House is a home located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. In 1909 the home underwent a remodeling designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The original Italianate home was built in the 1870s. Dr. William H. Copeland commissioned Wright for the remodel and Wright's original vision of the project proposed a three-story Prairie house. That version was rejected and the result was the more subdued, less severely Prairie, William H. Copeland House. On the exterior the most significant alteration by Wright was the addition of a low-pitched hip roof. The house has been listed as a contributing property to a U.S. Registered Historic District since 1973.

Octagonal Schoolhouse, Octagonal School or Octagon School, etc., may refer to:

Jefferson Intermediate School United States historic place

The Jefferson Intermediate School is a school building located at 938 Selden Street in Detroit, Michigan. It is also known as Jefferson Junior High School or Jefferson School. The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Ourants School United States historic place

Ourant's School is a one-room schoolhouse located on Ourant Road, east of Deersville, Ohio. The schoolhouse was placed on the National Register on 1994-03-17.

Dryden District School No. 5 United States historic place

Dryden District School No. 5, also known as Eight Square Schoolhouse, is a historic octagonal school building located in Dryden in Tompkins County, New York. It was built in 1827 and is a simple one-room, one-story, brick octagon style building constructed with a low pitch hipped roof banded by a plain narrow frieze. A circular brick chimney rises from the center of the standing seam metal roof. Also on the property are two free standing, wood frame, gable roofed outhouses. It was used as a school until 1941 and is now a facility of the Dewitt Historical Society.

Butler School (Oak Brook, Illinois) United States historic place

Butler School is a historic building in Oak Brook, Illinois. Frank Osgood Butler donated the land for the two-room schoolhouse in the late 1910s. The building became a meeting place for locals, and hosted the first club to use the term "Oak Brook" to refer to the surrounding settlement. The former school was briefly used as the village hall, police station, and library, until new buildings were constructed for those purposes in the 1970s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Jonesborough Historic District United States historic place

The Jonesborough Historic District is a historic district in Jonesborough, Tennessee, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Jonesboro Historic District in 1969.

Strang School District No. 36 United States historic place

Strang School District No. 36, or the Strang Public School, is a historic school located in Fillmore County, Nebraska, in the village of Strang. The school is one of the two sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the village of Strang. The school building is a small, two-story, brick public schoolhouse, which was built to replace the schoolhouse that was previously located on that site. The schoolhouse was built between 1929 and 1930, and replaced the previous schoolhouse, which burned down in 1928. The schoolhouse still retains all original building materials. The school served high school students from 1930 to 1951, and still functions as a school today, serving grades K–8. The NRHP listing also includes a flagpole located outside the schoolhouse, and five pieces of playground equipment.

Creole House United States historic place

The Creole House is a historic residence in the village of Prairie du Rocher, an old French settlement in present-day Randolph County, Illinois, United States. Built at the end of the eighteenth century and later expanded, the Creole House is the last survivor in Illinois of its type of vernacular architecture, and it forms an important part of the built environment of a portion of the Upper Mississippi Valley that possesses an unparalleled connection to the French settlement period.

Old Farm Schoolhouse United States historic place

The Old Farm Schoolhouse, also known as the Brick School, is a historic schoolhouse at Park Ave. and School St. in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Built in 1795, it is the oldest surviving public building in Bloomfield. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Number 18 School in Marshall United States historic place

Number 18 School in Marshall is a historic one-room school located at Marshall, Fauquier County, Virginia. It was built about 1887, and is a rectangular frame building, covered with weatherboard, and resting on a stone foundation, with a metal gable roof with a centrally located brick stove flue. Atop the roof is a reconstructed cupola. It is the only surviving unimpaired one-room schoolhouse in Fauquier County. It was originally constructed for white students, then from the fall of 1910 to 1964, a school for African-American children.

Forest Grove School No. 5 United States historic place

Forest Grove School No. 5 is an historic building located near Bettendorf, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Shiloh College United States historic place

Shiloh College is a historic school building located at 13043 Walnut Street in Shiloh Hill, Illinois.

Walnut Grove School (Osage, Iowa) Historic one-room schoolhouse in Iowa

Walnut Grove School is a historic one-room schoolhouse located southwest of Osage in rural Mitchell County, Iowa, United States. It was in operation from 1857 to 1946, and it educated anywhere from five to thirty-three student at a time. The frame structure built on a limestone foundation was constructed in 1873 on the same site as the building it replaced. A bell tower with a cast iron bell is located on the gable roof above the main entrance. Its property is on the edge of a timber along Rock Creek. In 1911 there were 88 one-room school houses in Mitchell County. This is the only one that is unaltered and in its original location. The area was settled by Norwegian pioneers in 1853. They named their small town Meroa, which has been reduced to his old schoolhouse, a Lutheran church, a cemetery, and a few houses. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Morrison County Courthouse United States historic place

The Morrison County Courthouse is a historic courthouse in Little Falls, Minnesota. The building was completed in 1890 or 1891 and still serves as the county courthouse today. The courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1978, due to its Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style and the fact that it is made completely of local material.

Two-room school Small rural school building

A two-room schoolhouse is a larger version of the one-room schoolhouse, with many of the same characteristics, providing the facility for primary and secondary education in a small community or rural area. While providing the same function as a contemporary primary school or secondary school building, a small multi-room school house is more similar to a one-room schoolhouse, both being architecturally very simple structures. While once very common in rural areas of many countries, one and two-room schools have largely been replaced although some are still operating. Having a second classroom allowed for two teachers to operate at the school, serving a larger number of schoolchildren and/or more grade levels. Architecturally, they could be slightly more complex, but were still usually very simple. In some areas, a two-room school indicated the village or town was wealthier and more prosperous.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. 1 2 Sculle, Keith A. (December 8, 1977). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Charter Oak Schoolhouse" (PDF). National Park Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 23, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Charter Oak School". Archived from the original on February 22, 2012.