Quintessential Pennsylvania

  One of several octagonal shaped one room schoolhouses that were built in Pennsylvania, the Sodom Octagonal Schoolhouse on PA 45 east of Montandon, Pennsylvania may be one of the best preserved examples of such. While the schoolhouse is of a rather simple design that is said to be based on a design from a church in Scotland and features limestone quarried from nearby sources, there are some legends revolving the construction of the school and how the school got its name. The schoolhouse has a single chimney in the center of the roof, seven windows, and a single door on the south side facing the road. At one time, the front of the schoolhouse also had a belltower and a cupola. A vestibule was once attached where students hung their coats and a wood-burning stove stood in the center. On the north wall of the school was a blackboard with a 30 foot long, 10 foot wide, 10 inch high platform for the teacher. Six long rough desks were placed parallel to the walls and two more were p...

The one room schoolhouse was a key part of rural life for much of Pennsylvania and America in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  Their are many in various shapes of repair throughout rural Pennsylvania.  One is the Archer No. 1 school house in Morris Township in Washington County. The school house appears to have been built around 1900 .  It currently sits within Morris Township Community Park in Prosperity. When I took these photos in July 2009, the building needed a little TLC.  Some more recent photos I have found online show that the schoolhouse has received a fresh coat of paint and additional upkeep. A nice feature of the Archer schoolhouse is that the original bell and bell tower remain.  You can understand why it may be easy to confuse these with small rural churches from the same era.