The Original Park Street School

completing the school as it is pictured here. Water and indoor toilets were installed, the pot-belly stoves were replaced with a central steam heating system and the building was wired for electricity.

After educating nearly 18,000 students since 1853, the doors closed for good in 1964, and the building was razed.

In 1868, the Grove City Special School District was formed, and the following year the board of education purchased the lot adjoining the school from Elizabeth Breck for $50. As Grove City’s population rose, reaching 143 by 1870, a larger, two-room school building was erected, and the original school removed.

It didn’t take long for the second school to become crowded. In 1888, voters passed a bond issue to build a four-room brick schoolhouse, with two rooms upstairs and two down. Each room was heated with a “pot-belly” stove and drinking water was pumped from an outside well located 50 feet from the school’s door.

After purchasing the final two lots on the block for $400, the district was able to accommodate the rapidly growing attendance by constructing two additional classrooms. By 1903, the school educated 180 pupils from Grove City and surrounding areas. All 12 grades were taught in the building until 1910, when the “new” Jackson High School was completed just east on Park Street.

In 1922, the third and final section of the Park Street School was added,

The property between Arbutus Avenue and Third Street, is now home to Park Street Dental and Studio on Park. There is a monument located on the original lot commemorating the history of the schools, the young minds who were taught there, and the educators who led them.

The original stained-glass window and the bell that hung atop the school from 1870 to 1964, are on display at the Grove City Welcome Center and Museum, 3378 Park Street, where visitors can learn more about the history of education in Grove City and our hometown.

Fondly Remembering RecSchool Council Briefs

My son and daughter both got married last year. Planning their wedding celebrations certainly took me on a trip down memory lane. At the risk of sounding just like my mother with a line like this, “Where in the world does the time go?!” Interestingly, not even the sifting through photos nor the speech writing inspired as much nostalgia as talking with residents about RecSchool.

Grove City’s RecSchool program was the first school my children attended. I remember my firstborn wearing a confident smile as he told me I could go when I dropped him off on his first day. I remember signing my daughter up for playgroup when she was two and sitting on the floor in a circle of other parents with our little ones singing “Down on the corner at the fishy shop…” around a “pond” of brightly colored felt fish. But what I remember the most was the teachers who instilled a love of learning in my young children and the parents who became my community. I’d found my team, people who were going to link arms with me as I raised my family. That long ago little boy and girl are now a veterinarian and a lawyer. I owe Teacher Michele, Teacher Donna, Teacher Sara, Teacher Lynn, Teacher Karen and Teacher Jennifer a debt of gratitude. What a gift it has been to watch the RecSchool program grow over the years. When the bad news came last year, the 2022 RecSchool leaders pivoted to create the preschool Nature Kids classes to fill the hole left by the hiatus. Though we collectively feel the loss of the Big Red Barn, I daresay the best is yet to come.

Watch for Grove City Parks and Recreation RecSchool updates as we move through the year!

Christine Houk Council Member, Ward 3