I’ve compared the available photos of the Black River Township schoolhouse and I’ve come to the conclusion that the photo in the Arcadia
Images of America – Lorain book (shown above) is not the school once located at Meister and Leavitt Roads.
First of all, the pitch or slope of the gable roof in the photo found in the Lorain book is different from the Rudy Moc photos found in the Port Mills newspaper coverage. It is not as severe as the building shown in the airport photos.
Next, the front of the schools are quite different. (We can identify the front of each building because they all have a chimney in the rear.) The window in the peak above the front entrance is different – round in the Arcadia book, more ornamental in the airport photos. The detail around the windows is different as well.
Lastly, although the school in the
Lorain book has the same number of windows on it side, they all have a rounded brick design at the top, as opposed to a more pointed and separate arc above the windows in the airport photos.
Anyway, there were many old schoolhouses in Lorain County and some are still standing. Perhaps some day we can determine which school that actually is in the
Lorain book – as well as figure out if that is a small black dog in the photo.
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Be sure to visit the great flickr
site, “Ohio’s Historic One-Room Schoolhouses,” where you can see structures very similar to those presented here on the blog this week.
