Stone School

AKRON’S OLD STONE SCHOOL

Also Known As Schoolhouse No. 2

By Michael C. Cohill, 2006

According to Pearl A. Drews in her report, The Restoration of the Old Stone School, Akron Public Schools, 1967, “Samuel Lane’s drawing (from memory) of the frame school on the northeast corner of Broadway and Middlebury Street (now East Buchtel Ave) this building was replaced by what we now call “The Old Stone School” in approximately 1840. (Evidence seeming to prove 1842 as the building date has been found to be invalid. Unless other evidence can be found, the generally accepted date, 1840, will continue to be used.)”

Mrs. Drews was head of the social studies department at Akron Public Schools in 1967 when the Old Stone School was restored. Recent research has discovered many interesting things about the Old Stone School including different building dates.

The First Schoolhouse No.2 & the District School System

The schoolhouse at the corner of Broadway and Buchtel was called School House No. 2. That name appears on its original property deed and numerous other documents.

School House No. 1 was located in the Town Square, what we know today as ‘Perkins Square’ by Children’s Hospital. It was not unusual to locate a schoolhouse on property that already belonged in the public domain.

The property for Schoolhouse No. 2 was donated by General Simon Perkins and his wife Nancy for a school.

Samuel A. Lane, writing in his book, 50 Years and Over, says the original schoolhouse was built in 1834 and he made a drawing of the original clapboard schoolhouse.

The earliest Annual Report for Portage Township School District No. 2 was an enumeration of students in 1834, which supports Lane’s date.

Annual Reports from Portage Township School Districts No. 1 and No. 4 were filed in 1833, suggesting there must have been a Portage Township School Districts No. 2 previous to 1834.

There were seven schoolhouses in Portage Township between 1832 and 1838.

In 1830 the Ohio General Assembly passed O.L. XXVIII – an amendment to the school law concerning certain restrictions on the amount of tax levied for school buildings; “not more than fifty dollars might be levied in any one school year for building purposes unless one-third of the property in the district was owned by residents.” Further, if 1/3 to 1/2 of the property were owned by residents the tax levied could be $100 and if 1/3 to 2/3 the tax could be $200. This inimical school law for building schoolhouses was replaced by Senator Leicester King’s 1838 school law.
- As Gen. Simon Perkins, a non-resident, owned more than 66% of the property in the Village of Akron and Leicester King, also a non-resident, owned at least 10% of the remainder; the total amount available from taxation to build Schoolhouse No.2 was limited to $50.
- A tax of $50 was not enough to pay for a clapboard schoolhouse. Sawed lumber during that period was prohibitively expensive. During this period almost all schoolhouses in Ohio were made from logs.
- It’s reasonable to assume that private donations were made, in addition to the $50 tax, to build a fine clapboard schoolhouse.
- It’s equally obvious the school directors of Schoolhouse No.2 could never afford to build a schoolhouse out of stone before 1838.
- Due to a severe economic depression, called the Panic of 1837, money became so scarce in Akron between 1839 and 1843 that most goods were obtained through barter and few taxes were paid. There are no records indicating that tax supported schools were held in Akron during this time period.

Until July, 1847, each schoolhouse was its own school district, had its own elected school directors and officers, its own tax base and elections were held every year to determine if school would be taught that year, and if so, the amount to be taxed to support the school. Even though these schools were supported by taxes this was not enough to cover all expenses so tuition was charged, usually $2 to $4 per student. This amount was high enough to keep most families from sending their children to school. Some schools also required the parents of students to supply firewood and to feed and board the teacher.

The Second Schoolhouse No. 2 & the Common School System

With the passage of the Akron School Law of 1847, for the first time all resident children of Akron could go to school for free. The first day of school under the new law was July 5, 1847. The Akron School Laws of 1847-1849 defined what is generally understood today as public school governance in the USA.

From the passage of The Akron School Law of 1847 to the end of the Civil War the Akron Board of Education could not obtain financing from the Bank of Akron for new schoolhouses guaranteed by their tax base, so all construction projects had to come out of a yearly two mill building tax which amounted to as little as $256. This was not enough money to build a schoolhouse out of stone.

When Col. George T. Perkins returned from the Civil War he went to work at a newly formed Bank of Akron. In later years he was elected to and served with distinction on the Akron Board of Education.

The 1868 Annual Report from the Akron Board of Education to the Town Council of Akron (this report covers a period from 1866 to 1868) lists the construction costs of Schoolhouse # 2 at $537.26. This is when they tore down the old clapboard schoolhouse and built a new schoolhouse out of stone. That year eight new primary schools were opened – Akron’s first schoolhouse building boom – due to the availability of bank loans.

By the 1880s, the small size of Schoolhouse No. 2 made it difficult for education purposes during a period of rapid population growth and so the Akron Board of Education sold the property to the railroad for use as a maintenance office.

The Old Stone School in the 20^th Century

In 1925, the year of Akron’s Centennial, the Akron City Council voted to buy the property from the railroad to save it from being demolished. They donated it to The Summit County Historical Society.

In 1967 the Akron Public Schools leased the property from the Summit County Historical Society for one dollar. They renovated the schoolhouse so 3^rd graders studying local history could visit on field trips.

As part of the renovation the building was extended to the east, indoor plumbing was added and for the first time the students at Schoolhouse No. 2 don’t have to go outside to use an outhouse.