One-room schools, or schoolhouses, 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, some remain in developing nations and rural or remote areas.
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.
The Octagonal Schoolhouse built in 1827 is an historic stone octagon-shaped school building located in the hamlet of Boquet in the western part of the town of Essex, New York. On January 17, 1973, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Lower Shell School House is located in an isolated portion of Big Horn County, Wyoming on a bluff near Shell Creek. The one-room schoolhouse was built in 1903, and was one of the first buildings in the area that did not use log construction. The school functioned as a church and Sunday school, and as a community meeting place. It was used as a school until the 1950s, and as a community meeting house until the 1970s.
The Hood Octagonal School is an historic octagonal schoolhouse which is located in Newtown Square, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Modern Times School, also known as District 12 School and Brentwood School, is a historic school building located at Brentwood in Suffolk County, New York.
Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse is a historic Quaker meeting house at 1245 Birmingham Road in Birmingham Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The current meetinghouse was built in 1763. The building and the adjacent cemetery were near the center of fighting on the afternoon of September 11, 1777 at the Battle of Brandywine. Worship services are held weekly at 10am. The meetinghouse and adjacent octagonal schoolhouse were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse and School on July 27, 1971.
The McAuley School District No. 27 is a schoolhouse in Winfield Township, DuPage County, Illinois, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) west from West Chicago, Illinois. By the time the schoolhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, District 27 was the last fully functioning one-room school district in Illinois. The final schoolhouse was built in 1913 on a school lot used since the 1850s; it closed in 1991 and the school district annexed into West Chicago Elementary School District 33 in 1992.
Sodom Schoolhouse is a historic octagonal school in West Chillisquaque Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States reportedly built about 1812, 1835, or 1836 and used until 1915. It is located in a rural area on Pennsylvania Route 45 near several Scotch-Irish communities: the "small group of houses" formerly known as Sodom, which was about a mile east of the hamlet of Montandon, and about 3 miles east of a small town, Lewisburg.
"Cloud Home" is a historic home located at Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It is a 2+1⁄2-story fieldstone dwelling in the Greek Revival style. It features a pedimented portico supported by four Corinthian order columns. Surrounding the home are seven acres of landscaped grounds. Located on the property are a contributing large stone barn, stone smokehouse with matching necessary, and an octagonal stone building with subterranean vault. This building was used as John Bannans legal office.
Wrightstown Octagonal Schoolhouse, also known as Wrightstown Eight Square School and Penns Park Octagonal School, is a historic one-room school located at Wrightstown, Wrightstown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1802, and is a one-story, one room, stone schoolhouse building. It has a wood shingled pyramidal roof and small terra cotta chimney. It operated as a subscription school from its construction until 1850. It was then used as a farm outbuilding, and in the 1980s as an artist's studio. It was restored in 1996 by the Wrightstown Township Historical Commission.
Octagonal Schoolhouse, also known as the Eight-square School House, is a historic octagonal schoolhouse building located in Cowgill's Corner, Kent County, Delaware.
The Washington Common Historic District encompasses a cluster of three civic buildings and the town common in the center of Washington, New Hampshire. The town common began as a 2-acre (0.81 ha) parcel acquired in 1787, and the current town hall followed in 1789. It is a two-story wood-frame building which originally served as both a civic and religious meeting house. The adjacent Gothic Revival Congregational Church was built in 1840. The third structure is the Schoolhouse, a 2+1⁄2-story two-room school built in 1883. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The Canal Street Schoolhouse is a historic school building on Canal Street in Brattleboro, Vermont. Built in 1892 out of locally quarried stone, it is a fine local example of Colonial Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
The Beaver Meadow School is a historic school building at 246 Chapel Hill Road in Norwich, Vermont. Built in 1922, it is a rare late example of a one-room schoolhouse, made further distinctive by the survival of its original schoolroom interior. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
Central School, also known as Hickory Grove School, is a historic one-room schoolhouse located northeast of Canton, Iowa, United States. It is one of over 217 limestone structures in Jackson County from the mid-19th century, of which 12 are school buildings. This school building was built in 1868, possibly by G.W. Kelsall or Issac Wilmer McCullogh, who were local stonemasons. The stone blocks that were used in the construction of this rectangular structure vary somewhat in shape and size, and they were laid in courses. What is unusual about the stone used here is that they are long and narrow, compared to the other buildings. The stones used at the corners are somewhat larger. The window sills and lintels are dressed stone. The stone used for this building was quarried about a mile north of here. A name and date stone are located on the east gable, above the door. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
Canton School is a historic one-room schoolhouse located in the unincorporated community of Canton, Iowa, United States. This school building was built in 1877 of locally quarried, roughly-dressed limestone, laid in a random ashlar pattern. The main facade, however, is faced with concrete brick that is original to the structure. What is unusual about this building is its decorative elements, as most one-room schoolhouses built in Iowa were plain. The eaves and the two-stage wooden bell tower are edged with rather delicate wooden trim, and the windows are capped with concrete keystone hoods. The use of concrete is rather sophisticated for a building in the vernacular-folk architectural style in stone. The building served as a school until 1966 when the area's school districts were reorganized. It served as a church until 1968, and it is now surrounded by a park.
The North River Stone Schoolhouse is a historic building located north of Winterset, Iowa, United States. Built in 1874 of coursed native limestone, the one-room schoolhouse educated local students until it closed in 1945. The building features quoining on the four corners of the exterior, four windows capped with stone lintels on the east and west elevations, and an off-center doorway on the main (south) facade. From 1962 to 1973 the building was restored, and it opened as a school museum operated by the Madison County Historical Society. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
The Stone School is a school building located at 2600 Packard Road in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Beginning in 1955, the building houses the Stone School Cooperative Nursery.
The Malmborg School in Bozeman, Montana is a one-room schoolhouse and the only octagonal school in Montana. Built in 1905, the schoolhouse is an example of the octagonal schools commonly found in the Mid-Atlantic and associated with mid-nineteenth-century reformer Orson Fowler's promotion of the “Octagon Mode of Building” in his book, A Home for All. The octagonal design of the school allowed for greater interior area and increased natural lighting, with windows present on three of the school's walls. The original school also featured an open front porch and an open bell tower, which were enclosed and removed in later renovations. The Malmborg School survived the consolidation of school districts and subsequent decline of one-room schoolhouses beginning in the 1920s and is still operational today as a K-8 school, with 12 students and 1 teacher in the 2019–2020 school year. The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 21, 1981. It was one of thirteen one-room schoolhouses listed together on the register on this date in Gallatin County, Montana. Three additional one-room schoolhouses in Gallatin County were listed on the register later.
