Freedom Green Community Park in New Freedom, PA (Google Street View)
New Freedom Area Schools subject of Talk in the Park
My talk on early New Freedom area schools will be given from the gazebo in Freedom Green Community Park on Thursday June 11th 2020. The park is located on the northeast corner of East Main Street and the Rail Trail in New Freedom, York County, PA. Bring your lawn chairs; there is plenty of area on the lawn to social distance.
Weather permitting, the one-hour outdoor talk will begin at 7:00 PM. and is sponsored by the Heritage Museum of New Freedom.
In addition to the history of early New Freedom schools, I’ll examine six nearby one-room schoolhouses in Shrewsbury Township, from which their eighth grade graduates had the opportunity to attend New Freedom High School.
I use the 1876 Beach Nichols Atlas of York County, to show the neighboring Shrewsbury Township schoolhouses’ locations relative to New Freedom Borough; which is shaded green on the atlas. To the west of New Freedom, are: Bowser’s, Fissel’s and Gerbrick’s One-Room Schoolhouses. To the east of New Freedom are: Ruhl’s, Keeney’s and Barren Hill One-Room Schoolhouses.
This 1895 photo shows Teacher Lola Sechrist and 39 of her students next to the brick two-room New Freedom Schoolhouse. Lola taught the Primary side of the schoolhouse; which is consistent with this photo showing her students in grades 1 through 4. The schools in New Freedom Borough and Shrewsbury Township were integrated.
Lola Ruhl Sechrist began teaching school in 1886, when she was 19-years old. She had a gift for teaching and continued to advance her skills, by graduating with the Class of 1894 from Millersville State Normal School and in 1897 earned her Master’s degree in Elementary Education at Millersville. Visiting teachers from all over the state came to observe in her classroom. Lola taught 32 of her 44 years as a teacher at the New Freedom school.
Click on this LINK for a yorkblog.com Full View of the photos and illustrations in this post.
Use the following links as a location and source index for pre-1950 York County schools. The vast majority of these schools are One-Room Schoolhouses:
York County One-Room Schools (A-B)
York County One-Room Schools (C-D)
York County One-Room Schools (E-G)
York County One-Room Schools (H-K)
York County One-Room Schools (L-M)
York County One-Room Schools (N-P)
York County One-Room Schools (Q-R)
York County One-Room Schools (S-T)
York County One-Room Schools (U-Z)
