Two Little Red Brick Schoolhouse Teachers Retire – 1950s

That's Mrs. Eppley in the back row on the far right, in front of the old
red brick schoolhouse that stood on the NE corner of Meister and Leavitt Roads.

Near the bottom of yesterday's blog post about Amherst Township one-room schoolhouses, guest blogger Rick Kurish made an interesting observation. 

"Not that I’m old or anything," he noted, "but I remember Mrs. Eppley, the teacher shown in your photo of the old Meister Road school. When I was in grade school in Amherst, she was still teaching at the old Central School that I attended!"

Mrs. Eppley's teaching career started at that one-room red brick schoolhouse. (I did a 5-part series on it starting back here.)

The red-brick schoolhouse at Meister and Leavitt Ads

A nice profile of her that appeared in the Lorain Journal on May 12, 1955 near the time of her retirement tells the story.

The article noted, "Mrs. Eppley started her career in January 1910 in the little red brick schoolhouse where the black river fire station now stands. It had been closed 11 years and had become a wildlife habitat, including plenty of snakes. Snakes and children are intimately associated in her memory with the two and one half years she spent there."

The article also mentions two other one-room schools at which she taught, "the school at Foster Park, now remodeled into the Old Stone Villa," and one at Ormsby's Corners in Amherst Township, which was "in the shadow of the new turnpike" and "is now a dwelling."

Mrs. Eppley also made the front page of the Amherst News -Times on May 13, 1955. The story provides a much more detailed account of her life and career.

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Meanwhile, Avon Lake also bid farewell to a longtime teacher who also taught in a little red brick schoolhouse. The January 11, 1952 Lorain Journal had the story of Mrs. Edith Diedrich, who taught at the one-room school located at the corner of Lake and Moore Roads. The article also notes, "At that time there were three other red brick school buildings in the village – one at Walker and Avon Belden Roads, one on Walker Road east of Lear Road and now occupied by the local American Legion Post and the other on Lake Road opposite Jaycox Road."

Both Mrs. Eppley and Mrs. Diedrich were dedicated teachers with careers bridging two very different eras of public education. They had a unique ringside seat for the evolution of the modern school.

Will a longtime teacher retiring today wax nostalgic about teaching in the pre-internet and pre-cell phone era?