Item Info

This letter-to-the-editor (measuring 17.5 x 23.5 cm) is from the opinion section of the Evening Bulletin, signed by concerned citizen "Antiquarian."  It is a plea for the conservation/restoration of historic schoolhouses in Chester County, PA, which at the time were deteriorating.  Happily, all three have since been restored.  The following describes the photographs in the opinion piece.

Item 1, top:  Image of the Old Diamond Schoolhouse, built mainly by Mennonite families in 1818, in Malvern, PA.  It closed in 1864, then was restored in 1909 by a preservation association of former students, and reopened in 1918.  For four years in the 1920s, it served as a painting studio for artist/wood sculptor Wharton Esherick; and in the 1940s, it hosted 4H Club meetings and other groups.  In 2019, the Wharton Esherick Museum acquired and has taken over management of the schoolhouse.  Reproduction of a photograph used by the Evening Bulletin, 8 x 6.5 cm, undated. 

Items 2 and 3, center:  Pair of images--before and after restoration--of the Old Eagle Schoolhouse at Strafford (Wayne), PA.  It was built in 1788, and served as a school and community center; in 1835, more space was added on.  But by 1842, the building was deemed too rundown for use, except for occasional religious worship or Sunday school.  Finally in 1895, after many years of disuse and debate, the schoolhouse's management was taken over by a board of trustees. Reproductions of photographs used by the Evening Bulletin, 17 x 6.5 cm, undated. 

Item 4, bottom:  Image of the Old Camp Schoolhouse, located in the Valley Forge National Historical Park.  Accounts differ about the year it was built, ranging from 1705 to 1810!  Initial reports maintained that the earlier dates were based on finding schoolboys' initials being carved in some of the building's stones; but those records were never sustantiated.  At another time, the park commission believed that the building was first used as a hospital during the winter encampment, then restored as a school.  The most recent research dates the building around 1810, for use as a schoolhouse.  Reproduction of a photograph used by the Evening Bulletin, 8 x 6.5 cm, undated.