What Was The Little Red Schoolhouse?
The Mount Jackson (or Potato Point) schoolhouse originally stood on a site north of Newburg, PA. It was built in 1865 and was in continuous use until 1954. The one-room schoolhouse was modeled around the agrarian lifestyle of Cumberland County, as each schoolhouse in the area was 5 miles apart from another to ensure students a walk no more than two and half miles each day.
Every year for 89 years, the one-room schoolhouse provided an education from August through April for pupils ranging in age from 5 to 21. A single teacher was responsible for educating all students in reading, writing, mathematics, geography, history, music, and art, rotating lessons throughout the day. The same teacher was also the janitor, school nurse, bus driver, recess aide, and Christmas program director.
The teacher would seat the oldest students in the back and the youngest in the front, (boys and girls would be segregated to different sides of the room). They would be expected to maintain discipline and working material based on their current level of education. Throughout the school day, any misbehavior or poor performance with other students would be met with swift correction or punishment.
Mount Jackson Teachers List: Click Here
Left Image: Left side view of classroom - Model layout of classroom structure while in operation
Right Image: Frame with names of all of the teachers that worked at the Little Red Schoolhouse over the course of 89 years of operation - Currently on display
Reconstruction Phase
In the 1960s, the National General Alumni Association of Shippensburg University made plans to obtain a one-room schoolhouse to place on Shippensburg University's campus as a monument to the educational heritage of the University and surrounding area. In 1968, Samuel Myers of nearby Newburg heard of the plans and donated the abandoned Mount Jackson schoolhouse that stood on his land. From 1968 to 1969, the Loyalty Fund drive run by Shippensburg University's Alumni Association collected $25,000 for the dismantling, brick-by-brick relocation, and reconstruction of the historic schoolhouse to Shippensburg University's campus.
The Mount Jackson Historical Society was founded on August 21,1970 to preserve and maintain the schoolhouse. Fully reconstructed and furnished, the Little Red Schoolhouse opened to the public in May of 1970 and was open for tours through the 1990s, with students from the Education and History Departments acting as tour guides for the site.
Today, the Little Red Schoolhouse has been undergoing internal and external renovations to recreate the space to its former glory. While there had never been a one-room schoolhouse at Shippensburg University, there has been a fully functional model school on site for as long as the University has existed.
Reconstruction of the Little Red Schoolhouse in 1969
National Legacy
In 2006 the SU Archives & Special Collections Librarian, Karen Daniel, received an email from Dr. Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of Education and History at New York University. He was writing a book about the history and legacy of the one-room schoolhouse and was interested in the history of the schoolhouse on our campus. Dr. Zimmerman reviewed materials from the SU Archives which contributed to his book, Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory. In 2009, Shippensburg University was selected by the Pennsylvania Humanities Commission to be the site for Jonathan Zimmerman’s TV program on one-room schoolhouses. The episode was taped before a live audience on April 30, 2011 in our schoolhouse.