The History of Snyder School

by Becky Cunningham

King Road in Spring Arbor Township was just a gravel path through the wilderness when this Greek Revival Schoolhouse was built at the corner of Chapel and King Roads. Located in its foundation is the date: 1840. According to an early abstract, a school (District #2) was located on property 7 rods square to the northeast on Section 10. Why it was then moved to Section 16 on King Road is a mystery. Possibly the road was more established or possibly a larger plot of land was donated. Early records do show that James Videto, an early King Road settler (1833) owned the property. Then on March 10, 1850, Houghton Butler purchased the land. In 1878 he sold land directly beside the school to the Seventh Day Adventist. Thus, until the early 1900's, the school was called the "Adventist" school. When the church was moved, it became Snyder School. Again, probably after its nearest neighbor, the Snyder families, who lived on the two comers of the intersection. Early school records do state that in 1843, "Hannah Pratt, the teacher, received a salary of $20.48 for four months teaching 27 students in grades 1-8." Since men taught school during the winter, Miss Pratt's contract was probably for the summer months. The school housed students until 1957, the date that the Parma, Woodville, and Spring Arbor systems consolidated into Western School District.

Susie Marshall purchased the land and the building and renovated it as her home until 1980's. Again, the schoolhouse was sold as a residence and used as such until 2001. In the summer of 2001, the building and land were purchased by Lloyd Ganton and donated to the Spring Arbor Historical Committee. Chris McCormick and Sons, hired by the historical committee, moved the school to the southeast corner of Harmony Park.
Now the real work began. Stan Lyon expertly removed the front porch and car port, mostly atop his backhoe while Lloyd Phillips and Becky Cunningham filled a dumpster with the 1957 plumbing, furnace, and even the chimney. The partitions were left in place to add stability during the move. In the late 1800's a back shed had been built on the south end of the school and a door cut into the back of the original structure. When the shed was removed, double doors were exposed, which were probably used for the teacher's horse and buggy or maybe as a "wood shed" for storage and discipline of unruly students.

The movers told Becky Cunningham that the original stone foundation was "laid to hold this structure in place for 160 years" as the pioneer builders used very little mortar which allowed circulation under the structure. Consequently, the original, hand-hewn beams are under the structure today.

The 24’ x 32’ building was placed on a basement foundation and work began to restore the old building back to its original 1840's Greek Revival condition. Although the building was a residence, fortunately much of the early construction was intact: the ceiling, two walls, flooring, the painted blackboard. During the reconstruction phase, original parts of the structure, held together with square nails, were carefully removed and used as patterns to duplicate missing parts. Lloyd Philips, master carpenter, would remove the damaged or age-worn sections, duplicate the pieces in his workshop, and then replace them in the building. Many days, one could find Lloyd on top of a stepladder or on an outside scaffolding replacing deteriorated wood with newly milled duplicates. Lloyd was historian, planner, house detective and carpenter. He, along with committee member Todd Holton as consultant, researched for authenticity. Working through the winter months of 2002, Lloyd was protected only by plastic covering the east wall section whose original wall had been replaced by a bank of windows to give more light into the interior classroom, probably in the early 1900's.

The historical committee chose to restore the 16 over 12 Greek Revival 1840's style windows [16 upper panes of glass over 12 lower panes]. Nancy Seydell of Tompkins Center donated windowpanes, which she had removed from a period house and stored in her barn for 30 years. The windows were cleaned and removed from their frames. Able Glass Co. of Jackson cut and installed the 224 pane, donating much of their labor. Brace Barrows and other volunteers painted the window frames black, working in the heated storage area behind the library so that the frames would dry. Now the windows were ready for authentic period sills, which was a problem. However, just by chance, Todd Holton picked up a 3-foot long section of wood that had been discarded for the "burn pile." When Todd placed it beneath the windows, it fit perfectly, obviously the 1840's missing sill. All new windowsills were made from this pattern, but one may view the original inside the downstairs window, although no one remembers just where it was originally in the structure. Keith Bushhouse installed much of the exterior siding and the interior wainscoting. Other community volunteers primed all of the exterior siding in the schoolhouse's basement, which was heated by portable heaters, and Ron Roth painted the interior and exterior a final, professional finish.