Bucks County's Last Surviving Octagonal Schoolhouse Open For Public Tours

WRIGHTSTOWN, PA — Bucks County's only remaining Octagonal Schoolhouse will be open to the public on Sunday, Aug. 17 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Swamp Road and Second Street Pike (Route 232) in Wrightstown Township.

The Wrightstown Township Historical Commission invites the public to take a look inside the historic schoolhouse, which is owned and maintained by the township. Free open house events are held once a month from May to October. Future events are scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 21 and Oct. 19 from 1 to 5 p.m.

A limited amount of parking is available on the grounds of the schoolhouse. The entrance is easily accessed from northbound Second Street Pike (Route 232) just before Swamp Road.

The history of the schoolhouse can be found at www.wrightstownpa.org . Click Octagonal Schoolhouse under the History of Wrightstown Township dropdown menu on the webpage. Below are some excerpts taken from the page.

In 1802, a group of Wrightstown Township residents banded together to lease land (at what is now the corner of Swamp Road and Second Street Pike) for 99 years from Joseph Burson. They decided to build a stone octagonal-shaped schoolhouse.

The eight-sided form allowed the maximum amount of light to enter at all times of the day. Artificial light, which is so commonly used today, was not as efficient in 1802. Oil lamps (it was before the days of kerosene lamps and electricity) and candles provided meager light for young eyes, but these sources were all that were available. They also added greatly to the expense of operating the school.

The eight-sided building usually had a door in one of the sides and a window in each of the other seven sides. As in this building, the windows were usually higher up on the wall. This brought in the light, but did not provide distracting views as the children could not see out of the windows when seated on their benches. The windows were also not large, because the cost of window glass was prohibitive.

In the winter, heat was provided by a small stove in the center of the room (with a stovepipe at the peak of the roof). The warmth would be distributed evenly throughout the interior space. The interior walls were usually whitewashed, which gave the schoolhouse a cleaner, lighter environment.

The octagonal, sometimes called “ink bottle,” shape accounted for more than 100 schools in the Delaware Valley.

Starting in 1773 with the eight-square building at Oxford Valley (Lower Makerfield) and ending in 1851 with the construction of the Harmony School, near Flemington, Hunterdon County, N.J., the buildings served a useful life, but most have succumbed to age and “progress.”

The Wrightstown Township School is the only remaining octagonal school in Bucks County. It functioned as a school from 1802 until 1850. At mid-century, local government entered the education field and township school districts were formed to build and maintain schools, hire teachers and provide an education for all children in the area. As a result, the private, subscription schools were no longer needed.