School is back in session and this year is certainly unique due to the pandemic. Erie County is home to 13 school districts, along with many private schools, charter schools and home schools. It would appear to me that a lack of education around here is not an option! Education is a serious business today and has been for a long time. Let us take a look at the development of public schools in the City.
The first schoolhouse in Erie was built in 1806 and was located on the Southwest corner of 7th and Holland Streets where school building #2 now stands (Jones School built in 1899). Made of hewn logs, it was 18 x 20 feet in size and the citizens of Erie paid $30 to have it built privately. Named the “Presque Isle Academy”, it was surrounded by woods with a path to the village of Erie, which was located mainly around German Street, below 4th Street. In 1812, there were 30 girls and 40 boys enrolled. Little else is known about this early school.
In 1834, Pennsylvania initiated a tax-supported public-school system and Erie was among the first to establish a series of schools for its growing populace. By 1888, Erie had 19 schools scattered about the city. The janitors of these buildings allowed “the fresh lake breezes to do their best sanitary work”, which was important (and now too due to the pandemic!). It was crucial that all schools provided the same curriculum with: math, English, German, writing, grammar, geography, history, music and industrial drawing offered so that the “outer sections of the city’s schools are just as good as the central, wealthier part of the city” in 1888.
Now, if you’d like to pull up another website while looking at this one, it would be helpful. I’m going to refer to Debbi Lyon’s blog: oldtimeerie.blogspot.com/2012/09/city-of-erie-public-school-buildings.html. Debbi is employed by the Erie County Library and can be found in the Blasco’s Library’s Heritage Room. She did a fantastic job of not only looking at these early buildings but the later ones as well, and has given me permission to “cite” her “site”. Thanks Debbi! I am including images of the schools for a comparison study of how they evolved or what is currently on the site. Debbi’s blog gives a bit more information about each and their locations throughout the city. She also writes about the “newer” schools in the city.
School #1
Northwest corner of 3rd and French Streets
Site of school #1
School #2
150 East 8th Street
School #3
158 West 16th and Sassafras Streets
Erie Central “Mall”
#4
414 West 5th Street
#5
234 East 12th Street
#7
148 West 21st Street
#8
655 West 16th Street
#10
816 Park Avenue North (between Liberty and Plum)
#11
East 11th and French Street
#12
650 East Avenue
#13
554 East 10th Street
#15
East 23rd and Ash Streets
#16
West 8th and Walnut Streets
It wasn’t until 1866 that a high school was established formally in Erie. The students initially met on the 3rd floor of No. 2 School at 7th & Holland Streets and graduated a class of 2 students in 1869: William Ottomar Jarecki and Miss A. Brindle. By 1874, there were 131 students enrolled and plans had to be made for a new, larger facility soon. In 1890, Erie High was established, known at the beginning as Central High School.
Graduating High School was a very big deal in the past (it still is today!). Paging through some of the old yearbooks the Hagen History Center has in the archives, I learned that dropping out of school was very common for students; deaths of classmates happened not infrequently; and marriages were on the mind of several “kids”.
In 1880, the city had 3,609 students in public schools verses 2019 when there were 10,820 students. Thank you to photographer/proofreader David Jakubowski for his help with this blog and every other one I have written! Have a great school year everyone and may learning, especially about local history, bring you much happiness!