Old School Building in Ohio

Damascus Grade School, Damascus Ohio

Date added: September 16, 2023 Categories: Ohio School

Damascus was settled in 1806 by Quakers from Virginia and New Jersey. Education was an important part of Quaker life, and the first schoolhouse in Damascus was erected in 1812. A succession of schools followed; the most notable was the Damascus Academy, founded in 1857 as the Friends Boarding School, and chartered by the State of Ohio in 1885 as the Damascus Academy. In 1900 the Goshen Township School board extended its district boundaries, and in 1902 built the Damascus Grade School for its elementary students. The Damascus Academy was leased in 1910 for use as a high school. These changes indicated that responsibility for education in Damascus was shifting from the private to the public sector in the first years of the twentieth century. The Damascus Grade School was abandoned in 1949 and used as a house until sold to the Damascus Area Historical Society in 1983. The old Damascus Academy was closed in 1925 and remodeled into a private home, with a major loss of architectural integrity, as the second story was entirely removed.

Locally, the Damascus Grade School is the best surviving example of an early schoolhouse. Even in 1947, there were only seven 1 or 2-room schools left in Mahoning County, and presumably even fewer survive today (exact count not yet determined). There is a two-room school at the northeast corner of state routes 534 and 165, north of Damascus, but it does not possess as high a degree of integrity.

The architecture of the Damascus Grade School is distinctive in that it does not conform to designs in widespread use at the turn of the century. Conservative and simple in design, it bears distinct resemblances to earlier Quaker meeting houses and schools in the Damascus area. Similarities to the Damascus Academy (built 1857) are particularly striking, despite one being of frame construction and the other brick. Both buildings are three bays wide and four deep, and simple cornices with returns, characteristic of the Greek Revival style, were found on both buildings. The builder of the Grade School apparently based his design on existing architecture in this Quaker settlement, disregarding more recent trends in architecture. The Damascus Grade School thus reflects how the Quaker community in Damascus continued to influence designs for public buildings in the early twentieth century.

Building Description

The Damascus Grade School is a rectangular two-story building measuring 41 x 30 feet. Built on a cut sandstone foundation, the school is constructed of red brick laid in a common bond pattern. Brick pilasters divide the front facade into three bays and the side facades into four bays (one blind bay on each side). The blind east or rear facade exhibits a raised Roman Cross design executed in brick, with the upright portion rising to a chimney and the arms extending to the cornice returns. The front entry is sheltered by an L-shaped, shed-roof, wood windbreak, and there are single five-panel doors with 6-light transoms on each side facade; the south side door is on the second floor, accessed by a cast iron fire escape. Windows are six-over-six double-hung wooden sash, with stone-faced sandstone lug sills and lintels. The front-gable roof retains its original slate, and has a plain cornice with returns. Corbeled brick capitals on the pilasters of the front facade support a raised brick pediment between the wooden roof returns. The belfry with slate gable roof is original, and houses the original 300-pound school bell.

Much of the school's interior has been retained, including oak floors, 3" x 4' tongue-and-groove wainscoting, slate blackboards, a pressed metal ceiling on the second floor, several brass light fixtures, and the staircase with between floors landing. The only notable exterior alterations are the additions of the front entrance windbreak and a large brick chimney on the north side of the belfry. Both additions were completed prior to 1913.

The Damascus Grade School is situated on a slightly rising large open area in the small rural community of Damascus. Two wood privies are located to the rear of the schoolhouse grounds. The surrounding neighborhood is residential.