The Society of Architectural Historians Missouri Valley Chapter News Volume XIX Number 1 Spring 2013 Letter www.stlouisarchitecture.org POND SCHOOL IN ST. LOUIS COUNTY specifications now in the hands of the Board of Directors.”4 by Lynn Josse The name of the school’s architect and contractor were never published, but some students remembered a sign on the building The hamlet of Pond developed in southwest St. Louis County which indicated that the school was built by “Seithel & Sons” 5 beginning in the 1830s. The community was well-placed on the of Manchester, Missouri. This is evidently a reference to road between St. Louis and Jefferson City (now Manchester Henry Seibel & Sons, a large St. Louis County contracting 6 Road). Its first post office opened in 1866, and by the 1870s firm. there was a school.1 Instead of working with an architect, the district chose a Before school buses and rural consolidation, every village with standardized model plan which had already been published a sizable population had its own school district. Some were statewide and nationally. This popular “rural model school” tiny: Pond’s graduating eighth grade class in 1914 included plan, designed by Kansas City architect J. H. Felt, was only three students.2 Since the population in town was less than adaptable to a variety of locations and materials. Other 100 at the time, this indicates that the district drew students examples of the same basic design have been identified in from the surrounding area as well. Missouri’s Adair, Chariton, Clark, Gentry, Greene, Jasper, and Lafayette Counties. Fortunately for Missouri researchers, these examples, along with a great deal of useful background, are included in the National Register Multiple Property Registration Form (MPRF) on “One-Teacher Public Schools of Missouri, c. 1774 to c. 1973,” written by Tiffany Patterson of the State Historic Preservation Office. Accepted by the National Register in 2011, the MPRF establishes a statewide context for small rural schools of this type. providing a well-researched framework for their evaluation and listing. Pond School, 17123 Manchester Road, Wildwood, 1914 from a plan by J. H. Felt, architect, photo by Lynn Josse, 2012 By 1919, Pond’s was one of 89 separate school districts in St. Louis County. (Today there are 22 plus the Special School District.) There were 56 one-teacher schoolhouses in the county in that year. 3 Felt’s Model Rural School. Source: Dresslar, Fletcher B., “Rural Oral history relates that Pond’s second school building was Schoolhouses and Grounds,.” Bulletin of the United States Bureau of destroyed by fire in or before 1914. By this time rural district Education, 1914, no. 12. consolidation was promoted and to some extent incentivized by While most known examples of this J. H. Felt design are of the State of Missouri, but Pond chose to rebuild rather than frame construction, Pond School was constructed of hollow merge with another district. clay tile (stuccoed on the exterior) with a clay tile roof. This choice of materials would have been influenced by the desire to In July 1914, the Pond School District announced that it was erect a fireproof structure and the availability of products from accepting bids for a new school according to “plans and local clay mines. Pond School’s detailing is so closely derived Newsletter 1 Spring 2013 from the published rendering that even the fenestration patterns 2. “St. Louis County Schools: Diplomas and Promotion Certificates (9/1 and triangular-paned windows) match. to be Presented by Prof. Grove,” Watchman-Advocate, May 29, 1914. 3. “Report of the Public Schools of the State of Missouri,” Missouri Felt’s model plan was drawn up with the latest technology and Office of State Superintendent of Public Schools, 1919. The term scientific theories in mind. Variations were published to “one-teacher” schoolhouse is preferred to “one-room” because by the late 19th century, a single classroom was often accompanied by accommodate either a furnace or jacketed stove, and an optional cloakrooms or a library. basement could include toilets for districts that had access to 4. August 14, 1914. running water. Like other modern schools, the Felt model had a 5. Oral history as related by Lynne Martin, past president of the wall of windows to one side of the classroom. Placement of the Wildwood Historical Society. Interview with Lynn Josse, April 30, original main chalkboard was determined by the orientation of 2012. the school. Theorists argued that light sources must be to the 6. Karen Bode Baxter, “Henry Avenue Historic District” National left of students to allow shadow-free writing for right-handers. Register documentation, 2002. This nomination for the historic core At the Pond School, the bank of windows faces north and the of Manchester includes three of Seibel’s residential buildings as well chalkboard wall is therefore located to the east. as their brick Manchester School (1907). According to the nomination, Seibel & Son (which used several variations on the same The historic Pond School operated until 1951. It was later used name over the company’s long history) was the largest contractor in St. Louis County. for special education classes and then for administrative purposes. By the end of the 1990s, citizens began an effort to restore the school. The City of Wildwood engaged Lauren SURVIVING RURAL SCHOOLS Strutman Architects, who designed a sensitive and high-quality IN ST. LOUIS COUNTY restoration scheme. The school’s grounds became a city park, by Esley Hamilton and the building itself is now used for meetings and community events. Inside are several displays of historic photos gathered As Lynn Josse observes in the preceding article, Missouri still by the Wildwood Historical Society. has many 19th-century and early-20th-century school buildings that may merit preservation. School districts were originally organized in the state by so-called Congressional Township, an unit of measurement established by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Townships consisted of 36 square miles, six miles on a side. Because of the irregular boundaries of St. Louis County, many Congressional Townships were incomplete, and by 1900, the number of schools within each of them ranged from one to ten. Townships were named according to their distance from prime survey lines, and this system gave the schools unwieldy names. The Pond School, for example, was District 1, Township 44 North Range 3 East. The county government reorganized this system in 1910, keeping the popular names people had been using but assigning the districts numbers from 1 to 75. Three more numbers were added in later years. By that time, several places in the county had already organized urban school districts, beginning with Kirkwood in 1865 and Webster Groves in 1868. Bridgeton and Florissant adopted town systems by 1877, Ferguson in 1903, Clayton, Maplewood, Normandy, and Wellston in 1906, Ritenour in 1907, Eureka in 1908, and University City in 1911. Between 1947 and 1954, One plan for Felt’s Model School. Source: Plans for School Buildings & the rural school districts that had not already joined urban Equipment in Missouri, Missouri State Dept. of Education, Jefferson City, districts were merged into the modern school districts. Court- 1920. ordered mergers in 1976 (Berkeley- Kinloch-Ferguson- Florissant) and 2012 (Normandy-Wellston) have left St. Louis As part of their stewardship of the historic property, the city County with 22 school districts. Two of them, Bayless and also commissioned its nomination to the National Register of Hancock Place, have essentially the same boundaries as the old Historic Places in 2012. Pond School was only the second rural districts. building to be listed using the “One Teacher Public Schools” MPRF; many more are eligible statewide. The City of The mystique of the one-room school inspired several early Wildwood has done an outstanding job in preserving this piece efforts at historic preservation in St. Louis County, and with the of rural history for future generations to enjoy. recent removal of the Alt School to Faust Park, we now have NOTES five school museums. Several other survivors have been recognized by the St. Louis County Historic Buildings 1. William L. Thomas, History of St. Louis County, Missouri: A Story Commission or have been listed in the National Register of that Attracts. St. Louis: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911, p. 389. Historic Places. Newsletter 2 Spring 2013 The following list is based on the County’s 1991 inventory of ● Glencoe School #62, 2125 Rue de La Salle Drive rural schools. It does not include schools built by city or village at Old State Rd., Wildwood districts or by the modern districts, although several of those are c. 1910 (Assessor says 1923), now a residence also significant. ● Old Concord Log School #69, 10208 Concord School Rd. c. 1843, now inside a 1872 residence ● Hancock School #71, 242-248 Dammert at Fannie One and Two-Room School Museums c. 1885, now apartments ● Cold Water School #2, 15875 New Halls Ferry Rd. 1859, owned by Hazelwood School District ● Elm Grove School # 9, 450 Brookes Dr., Hazelwood district established 1852, brick building later, Larger and Later Rural Schools rebuilt in Brookes Park 1961, City of Hazelwood ● Black Jack #8, 4655 Parker Rd., Black Jack ● Lake School # 24, Lake School Park, Coeur de Ville Dr., 1928, owned by City of Black Jack, formerly City Hall Creve Coeur; owned by City of Creve Coeur ● Rosary School #11, 7011 Howdershell Rd., Hazelwood 1897, moved from 14298 Olive Blvd., Chesterfield rebuilt 1940s, now a church ● Ballwin School # 42, 308 Jefferson Avenue, Ballwin ● Moline School #19, 1860 Chambers Rd., nr Winkler c. 1900, moved from 110 Elm c. 1926 & 1940, formerly a charter school owned by City of Ballwin ● Chesterfield #26 (white), 16758 Wild Horse Creek Rd.