Center Square School in Roundtown? Great name, but one-room building in dire need of repairs
This view of the Center Square School in Roundtown is hidden from motorists driving by on Church Road in Manchester Township, Pa. Backers of the school plan a fundraiser to preserve the one-room building. (See photo of another one-room school, in Dover area, below.) Background posts: Solo teachers in York County one-room schools assigned lots of assistants, 18th-century mines gave Ore Valley its name and Can you identify this mystery school, believed to be in York County?
Deb Andress, with Roundtown’s Grace Lutheran Church, is seeking support for the neighboring, early 1900s Center Square School.
“… (We) are desperately trying to save our one-room school,” she wrote in an e-mail received by Yorkblogger and Weekly Record editor Joan Concilio.…
Deb and other school backers are planning a benefit concert to save the one-room school.
The Keystoners, a local country and gospel band, will perform from 2-4 p.m., Sunday, October 17.
According to Deb’s e-mail:
Donations: A free will offering will be taken with the proceeds to benefit “save the Roundtown Schoolhouse.”
The match: Matching funds will be provided through Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, North York Chapter No. 31059
Free food: Light refreshments will be served.
If you can’t attend: Please donate to Grace Lutheran Church Schoolhouse Fund, 498 Church Rd, York, Pa., 17406
Seeking information: If you have any information about the history of this one-room school house, please call the church at 717-767-4711.
Center Square School is one of the approximately 300 one-room schools operating in York County before World War II.
Many stand today, including Center Square, which hopefully will remain so for many years.
You hate to see the passing of any piece of York County’s fascinating one-room school culture. This is particularly so when a school has the neat geometrically mixed name: Center Square School in Roundtown.
Also:
– Roundtown in Manchester Township, York County, Pa.? Where did that come from?
– To see a Web page packed with info on York County one-room schools, see: All in One Room.
– No church/school conflict: Manchester Township church to shore up deteriorating school
– All York Town Square posts from the start. (Key word search by using “find” on browser.) Or search via Google.
Gary E. Heiland e-mailed this photo of the Airy Hill School play cast in March 1946. The school was on the north side of Davidsburg Road, between Pickett Road and Bermudian Church Road. “It must have been a cold day in March with snow on the ground and icicles hanging from the eaves of the school building,” he wrote. Teacher Mable Smith wrote the date on the back of the picture. “I still remember her beautiful handwriting; the Palmer method, of course,” he wrote. Pictured, from left, Carl Richard, Richard Clermont Smith, Dean Rinehart, Gary E. Heiland, Janice Shoemaker (Gary is not sure), and Glenda (Glenna?) Shoemaker. “I don’t remember the name or subject of the play, perhaps something to do with toy soldiers,” he wrote.
