Historical society finishes work on 1800s-era Murrysville schoolhouse replica

The Murrysville Historical Preservation Society was hoping to mark Murrysville’s 200th anniversary at its annual festival this year.

While the society has canceled its 2020 events, according to its website, it does have reason to celebrate: a period-appropriate replica of the former one-room schoolhouse off of West Pike Street was completed in the spring, and now boasts a fully furnished interior and a new parking lot.

Society President Carl Patty — who was also decked out in period clothing on Aug. 5 as he and other members waited to give the Murrysville-Export Rotary a brief tour of the building — said the one-room schoolhouse was a fairly common feature in farming communities.

“A number of farmers who wanted their kids educated would build it, hire a teacher and send their children,” Patty said. “Places like this is also where community groups and churches would meet.”

Originally built in 1836, the new schoolhouse, which sits on the same piece of property as the Sampson-Clark Toll House, is outfitted to appear as it would’ve in 1861.

That meant tracking down an American flag with only 34 stars — which Patty accomplished through a friend in Greensburg — and hanging portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin above the blackboard.

Society member Suellen Watt was dressed in her schoolmarm’s outfit, scrawling geography and history lessons on the blackboard.

“The schoolhouse just looks wonderful,” Watt said as society members laid out replicas of miniature blackboards and alphabet placards on the bench-style school desks.

School in the 1860s typically stopped at eighth grade, “then you would’ve had to pay to send your child to a local academy,” Patty said.

The society also planted a colonial garden at the rear of the property, brimming with heirloom plants like the Cherokee Purple tomato and what Patty called the “Three Sisters” — corn, beans and squash — which were the main staples of the Native American diet.

And while the pandemic made a planned grand opening in May unfeasible, society members hope it can serve as both an entertaining and educational space in the future.

“We’ve been talking with the (Franklin Regional) school district about hosting classes next year on gardening and dendrology with some of the local plants,” Patty said.

For more, see MurrysvilleHistory.com.