Box Schoolhouse

Box Schoolhouse (circa 1850)

Thanks to the Box family of western Lucas County, the 1850 one-room country school was added to the museum complex in 2006.

The exact building date has not been established but the structure exemplifies the atypical pre-industrial, pre-Civil War building with mortise and tenon construction, gabled roof with (originally) shake shingles, clapboard siding, and three long windows on each side. It was not built by an architect but by the local farmers who sent their children here to school. 

The teacher's desk is an original schoolmaster's desk c. 1840-1860. It sits on a platform constructed of wood from the original flooring. The wainscoting and pegs for hanging coats and lunch buckets are original to the building. The chalkboardis original, from a centruy old school which was razed. The stove is a "box stove" which pre-dates the more familiar "pot belly" stove and is original.

The schoolhouse's original location was at 10500 Jeffers Road, near the corner of Box Road, Providence Township in Lucas County. The architectural style is country "vernacular." Ownership history: Jacob Box 1845; Edward Box 1882; Atlanta J. Box 1930; Russell Box 1940; Russell and Glenn Box 1954; and Boyd Box 1964.

It provides a wonderful venue for visitors to learn about education in the mid 1800's.