The Richmond "little
red schoolhouse"Return to Topical Schools and Education Page
Beaver expanded slowly and physically. Caldwell's Atlas shows most homes and places of business concentrated within the original town plan. It was not until the P.&L.E. Railroad began to provide commuter service to Pittsburgh that more houses were built in the southeast part of the town. The northeast lots began to sell when the Fair Grounds was moved about 1900. The southwest corner, however, was not heavily occupied until the 1920s.
Educational facilities came before the town was incorporated. Miss Electa Smith opened the first private school in 1799, others followed in Beaver, Sharon, and Vanport, and in 1861 the first central school, the Market Street Building, was erected. Elementary Schools in the various neighborhoods followed; in 1926 the high school moved into the old Beaver College Building, wings were added, a new junior high school, and in 1959 the present senior complex in Gypsy Glen.
Since Miss Smith opened her school in her home in 1799, the public school system has grown to one with a professional and administrative staff responsible for a student enrollment of 3,441, in a plant valued at $29,000,000. An additional 238 students attend SS. Peter and Paul's Catholic Grade School.
The Richmond "little
red schoolhouse"
on Dutch Ridge Road is preserved today
as a classic example of the once typical
one-room school.
(ABOVE) Present-day College Square Elementary School , Beaver Are Junior High School in this picture, stands on former Beaver College site:
(BELOW) Beaver Area Middle-High School stretches over several acres in the lower Gypsey Glen Valley
1907 graduates of the Beaver County Commercial
College posed in the tall grass of Harmar (Quay) Square near Insurance
Street for this picture. The building later served as a hardware
store and delicatessen.
(ABOVE)The school bell now
preserved in front of the present Elementary School on College
Avenue once called students to classes in the old high school
building which stood on Market Street (LEFT)