Located
at Mt. Hope on County Road 35 this one room schoolhouse was in use from 1882 until 1936.
Once very
commonplace throughout rural America in the late 19th and early 20th century the one room schoolhouse
had one teacher that taught the academic basics (or the Three “R”s Readin’, Ritin’ and Rithmatic’)
to between five to eight grade levels of elementary aged boys and girls.
The Mt. Hope schoolhouse was built between 1879 and 1882 on land donated from the farm of William and Barbara Alexander
Smalley.
When the Mt. Hope schoolhouse opened it was district school number nine out of thirteen one room school houses in Brush
Creek Township.
The Mt. Hope schoolhouse was closed in 1936, which was the year that most one room schools ceased
operation in the State of Ohio.
The building was purchased by Kepler and Clarabelle Arnold who used the building
as a residence from 1943 to 1946.
A
project to restore the Mt. Hope schoolhouse began in 1976 when the building was given to the Scioto Area Teachers' Chapter
of the Historical Society however the project was abandoned and the Arnold's took procession of the building again.
In the early 1980's the Arnold's donated the building to a new group that wished to restore it and
this time it was moved to its present day location on land donated by the Hoople family.
The school was completely
restored through the efforts of Sam Fillmore, Robert Hoople, Keppler Arnold, area teachers and the Bluebird Parish Circuit
Riders.
In
May 1986 an open house was held at the newly restored school with nearly 100 people attending including 12 former students
who shared their memories of attending the school.
A picnic and reunion is now held each year on the last Sunday
in August at the school.
In 2006 Mt. Hope School, Inc. was established in order to help maintain the school
and preserve its history.
