1850's Schoolhouse Adventure

sibbley

Hero Member
Mar 18, 2023
877
2,520
Nazareth, PA
Detector(s) used
Dr. Otek MT-XR, Ace Apex, Xterra Pro, Nokta Legend, Nokta Makro Impact, Manticore, XP ORX, XP Deus 2 WS6 Master, Deeptech Vista X
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
My latest permission is an 1850's schoolhouse owned by a municipality that actually seems to care about history. I have the blessing of the municipality and its Historical Commission to clean out the property and find what I can. Any items pertaining to the school will be given to the Historical Commission for display.

The school was built in about 1859 and operated for about 100 years closing in 1958. The school served grades 1-8 till 1951 when it was lowered to grades 1-6. In 1959 the school building and property was sold to a nearby farm and sold again in 1997 to a large corporate farm. In 2013 the school building and property was gifted to the municipality. The structure was refurbished between 2013 and 2015 to its current fine condition.

I was able to get a half day off work August 23, 2024, and decided to spend a couple hours at the site just sniffing around for any obvious decent tones. Tons of iron, I mean it's a very trashy area. Around the building is the worst I think I have seen. I imagined most of the trash there was from the work done to refurbish the building. I got lucky though, I went to search around the trees in the yard. They are thick, so I figured they were at least 80 years old. That paid off with a coin spill including silver.


I spent a couple hours on Saturday and Sunday removing iron from the yard and around the building. Haven't taken photos of those items yet. I also pulled flashing, bottle caps, pull tabs, and the dreaded foil from around the building. While working the building area, a gentlemen wondered over from the nearby farm and introduced himself. Turns out he not only attended school there but also worked for the farm that owned the property from 1959 to 1997. This fellow was a wealth of information and explained why I was finding the iron items I was finding.

At one point the school building was renovated to accommodate tractor repair. Tractors and farm equipment were stored on the grounds for many years. Broken parts were just thrown to the ground and left to rot and sink into the ground. I have my work cut out for me, but I have all the time in the world to work at finding the older pieces.

I'll continue to post as I make progress.
 

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