Throughout the cities, townships and villages of Wayne, Holmes and Ashland counties there are dozens of schoolhouses that are 100 years old or more.
Each has seen hundreds of children come and go over the decades. And each schoolhas a story to tell.
How are these century buildings being used today? Reporters fromThe Daily Record and Times-Gazette scoured the tri-county area to find out.
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Wayne County century schools
All four elementary schools in theSoutheast Local SchoolDistrictwere built more than a century ago, or very close, saidSuperintendent Jon Ritchie.
Ritchiesaid Mount Eaton and Fredericksburgschools were each built in the 1890s, andHolmesville and Apple Creek schools were each built in the 1920s.All fourfeed John R. Lea Middle Schooland eventuallyWaynedaleHigh.
While there have been some additions and updates over the years, including to the roof andelectrical wiring, Ritchie said, most of the schools have not seenany major renovations since their initial construction.
“I wouldn't say they've been renovated,” Ritchie said. “...It's not like you'd walk in and go ‘Wow, that's a new building.’”
The district will be getting a brand-new school in a few years. With the help of funding from theRover pipeline,a one-campus building that will house all Southeast students is planned for completion by August 2024, though the location for the new construction has yet to be determined.
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The building that housesCornerstone Elementary, part ofWooster City Schools,was built inthe early 1900sand holds decades ofhistory.
The first school thatstoodatQuinby Avenueand W. Bowman Streetwas theoriginalWooster HighSchool,which was built in 1908, said Cornerstone Principal Eric Vizzo.
The three-story building was renovated over the years to add an auditorium in1922 anda gymnasium 37 years later in 1959.
Wooster High became CornerstoneElementary in the mid 1990s when the district realizedthe building was not big enough for thegrowing population, according to a post on the Heritage Ohiowebsite.
The district had planned to demolish the high school and build a newelementary school on the grounds. However, because of communitysupport to keep the old schooland ahigher-than-expectedprojected costto build a new one, the district decided to renovate the current building.
“May of ‘93 would have been the last class that went through this as Wooster High School and then they officially closed it ...and then the class of‘94 would have been the first class that went to the new high school” Vizzo said.
While the schoolreceive countless renovations before it opened as Cornerstone Elementary, Vizzo said, the old school is still noticeablethroughout the building. For example, the stairwell near themainentrance,the wide hallways and lockers,a fireplace in the principal’s office andsome of the stage from the original performing arts centerthatcan still be seen in the library.
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As the district is reviewing its five-year master plan, Vizzoisunsurewhat thefuture holds for Cornerstone.
“Discussion has to occur about not only the building itself, which will definitely have nostalgia and history with thislong tenureofalways beinga part of WoosterCitySchools.I think what’s also going to become equally importantis the spot in which it's located,” Vizzo said.
Once a school, now another use
TheWayne Center for the Artsis housed in what used to be Walnut Street School.
Established in 1973, the center was originally housed on the College of Wooster campus before moving to the old schoolhouse in the 1980s, according to information from the center’swebsite.
Ted Bogner, whoworks for the center,assisted whenrenovations to theold schoolhouse began in1982.Unlike the Cornerstone building,Bogner said, Walnut Street School neededa lot of updates to bring it up to code, and the renovations made the building a better fit for what the center needed.
“Each one of the classrooms was really converted into a studio,” Bogner said. “...We retained the blackboards and converted the rooms themselves to specific purposes. There was a dance studio, there was a sculpture studio. All things of course related to the arts.”
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In later years there were further renovations, including all new windows being installed “through the generosity of Mr. Ralph Jones, who was president and owner of the WoosterGlass Company,” Bogner said.
Are there updates and renovations coming?Bogner said the center’s executive director, James Fox, has not made any official announcements aboutfuture plans.
One centuryschoolhousethat has beengiven a new life is theBeall AvenueSchool, whichwas built in 1901, according to a Daily Recordarticle.Thebuilding, now called Gault Schoolhouse,is used by the College of Woosterto house roughly 73 students.
Before becoming a dormitory, Bogner said, he was on a team that helped renovate the old Beall Avenue Schoolin 2001,into what would become the GaultFamily Learning Center.
“The real purpose of the original renovation was to provide a training area,” Bogner said.“This was mostly dedicated to womenso that they could learn and be taught skills that will enable them to go into the marketplace and be much more marketable. In other words,computer skills,typingskills.”
In 2013, the family centerwas given to the college after some federal and state government cuts in funding.
Although many might disagree on what should have happened to the family center, there are some, likeAssistant Director of Residence Life at the College of Wooster, Jake Marion, who appreciatehow the Gault Schoolhousereflects its past.
“I think they wanted to keep that look and keep that feeling,” Marion said. “Still make it feel like its roots and not change it so significantly that it isn't recognizable anymore.”
Holmes County's 100-year old schoolhouses
Glenn Wengerd of the Winesburg Historical Society saidat one time there were seven one-room schoolhouses in Paint Township at the northeast corner of Holmes County.
"This one, Peter's School, dated to 1845. It burned down and they rebuilt it in 1876," he said. "It was about a mile-and-a-half northwest of Winesburg here, out in the country."
Wengerd explained that the Winesburg Historical Societybought the schoolhouse in the early 1990s for $200 and volunteers spent five years disassembling it, marking each piece and putting it back on the original foundation stone. The building sits in Winesburg Heritage Park offU.S. Route 62, next to a restored 1837log cabin.
The late Morrie Amos was president of Historical Society at the time and he had retired from Ashland Oil.
"On Saturdays, we had six to eight volunteers and we'd do whatever he wanted done," Wengerd said. "He was the type of guy who made hard work seem easy. He was just a nice guy. After he retired, he didn't have anything to do, so he spent his time on this project.
"We had it finished for the Winesburg Reunion in 1995," he added. That was the same year Amos died.
The organization still holds its meetings at Peter's School, and during the annual Fall Gathering they host a cakewalk there.
Some original items found during the renovation includea kerosene lamp and a world globe stand. The school shut down in 1958 and was turned into astorage shed.
"This was the best of the seven buildings," Wengerd said. "The others were too far gone and deteriorated. The Historical Society decided to save it."
Another centuryrefurbished building in Winesburg is the 1861 German Methodist Church in Laurel Park. The original pastor left to join the Union forces in the American Civil War. A grandson of the founder of Winesburg also served as pastor there.
East and West Holmes schools
Of the four elementary schools in the West Holmes Local School District, two are more than 100 years old, and the other two will turn 100 in 2023.
Lakeville Elementary was built in 1914, originally serving as a high school. The building now houses grades three through five at West Holmes, serving as a partner school with Nashville.
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Killbuck Elementary in southwestern Holmes celebrates its 100th birthday next year.
The oldest school building in the district is Millersburg Elementary, which was built in 1913.
It originally wasMillersburg High School and also served as West Holmes Middle School until the new high schoolwas constructed in 2000, and the old high school became the middle school.
There were additions tothe elementary schools at different times after the original buildings were constructed
In the winter of 2020, the Millersburg building was showing its age, as a water main burst on the second floor and flooded a classroom below it, ruining many pieces of electronic equipment, including computers and a television.
The building has had some renovations over the years, and absorbed many of the students from Clark when the district closed that building.
In East Holmes, Walnut Creek Elementary School, built in 1925, is nearing 100. Berlin Elementary was constructed in1929. Both schools served as high schools until Hiland was formed in 1959.
A one-room schoolhouse, the Boyd Schoolat County Road 201 near Berlin, was built in 1889. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Italianate architectural style has been restored but has not been used for anything more than storage in recent years. It was used as a schoolhouse until 1962. The brick building replaced another that was builtduring the Civil War.
Italianate architecture is a popular 19th-century style of building that was inspired by 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture combined withinfluences from the farmhouses of the Tuscan countryside.
The Vermillion Institute lives on in Ashland County
The Vermillion Institute building is a historical landmark in Ashland County.
Founded in 1843 as a liberal arts college,at one time the Hayseville institution of higher education had an enrollment of 600studentsfrom 13 different states, according to the book "Historic Ashland County."
The institute was known for itsprestigious academics and occasional hijinks.
According to thebook, an unwilling cow was led to the third floor of the building and eventually led back down. The professor and Rev. D. Saunders Diefendorf would occasionally puton aduster and old straw hat andpusha wheelbarrow to impersonate Hayesville resident Yankee Sam Harlan.
Enrollment declined during the Civil War and never regained afterward.
Itwasn’tuntil 1886 that the institute reopened asHayesvilleHigh School and continued until 1929 when thecombinedelementary and high school was built.
StevenMcQuillinpurchased the building10 years agowhen it was in disrepair.
“It was in terrible shape,” he said. “Itwasn’toccupiedfor years and years.Icompletely rebuilt the building," he said.
The cost to renovate and bring the building to modern times took an enormous amount of capital, more than whatMcQuillin, a preservationist, was originally expecting.
McQuillinhas workedforOhio Historic Preservation Officefor man than 34 years.
“It’sa beautiful place and Idefinitelyenjoy living there,”McQuillinsaid.“I knew about the building for years and was justdistressedbyitsbadcondition."
The old Arthur Street School in Ashland is nearing the century mark.
Ashland City Schools Board of Education agreed to sell the approximately 95-year-old building at 416 Arthur St. to Schwab Development, LLC for $10,000 in June 2020.
The structure previously served as administrative offices for the district until 2016.
Built in 1911, the former Pleasant Street School ishome toDerrick Bowersock and Kelly Jacobs. The couple purchased the property several years ago and began renovating it in August 2020.
The 110-year-old building closed as a school in 1998, and was later available to rent as apartments. Bowersock, a massage therapist in Ashland, had rented one of the rooms in 2016 and saw the building's potential. When he met Jacobs the pair began making plans for the old schoolhouse.
This past summer the couple invited the Pleasant Street School Class of 1993 to help unearth a time capsule the former students had buried on the property. The search for the time capsule proved unsuccessful.
