The Birchardville School, Birchardville, PA, circa 1915.


Exterior, Birchardville One Room School with students posing in front.
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Well into the twentieth century, one-room schoolhouses dotted the Pennsylvania countryside. Some buildings were simple frame structures with no architectural embellishment. Other, more ornate schools had Classical or Victorian details. By the time of district consolidation during the Great Depression, the one room school house was a fading presence across the nation. Built in 1861, at a cost of $315, this one room school was one of nine in the Township of Forest Lake, Pennsylvania. Located in Northern Pennsylvania's Susquehanna County, on Route 267, a half mile south of Birchardville, and five and a half miles north of Lawtown, the school has been turned into a museum.