|
| | Port Republic School
No. 7 - Port Republic,
Maryland
|
|
3100 Broomes Island Road, Route 264
Port Republic, MD 20676
Phone: 410-586-0161
|
|
One-Room
School
Port Republic School
No. 7. Built about 1870 and closed in 1932. One teacher usually
taught seven grades. Children walked to school from as far as three
miles away. In the 59 similar schools throughout Calvert County
enrollment averaged about 30.
This building was
restored in 1977 by the Calvert Retired Teachers Association, Calvert
County Historical Society, Board of County Commissioners and Maryland
Historical Society |
 |
|
 |
What memories surround this little Southern Maryland school house. For
over a hundred years it has stood in its shady grove on the grounds of
Christ Church in Port Republic, Maryland. Here came the youth of Calvert
County to sit at wooden desks, to open red and tan McGuffy Readers, to
write on slates and to eat mid-day meals from tin lunch pails. Here during
recess games of "Annie Over" and "Bug in the Gully,"
they raced shouting over the sun-dappled play ground. Here a single,
dedicated teacher taught reading, writing and arithmetic to seven grades
of boys and girls in a classroom at times so crowded that the young
students had to sit along the edge of the teacher's platform or cram them
selves into the aisles between the desks, their warm bodies supplementing
the heat that in winter radiated from the iron chunk stove in the center
of the room.
In 1932, a victim of progress, the old school house was closed.
Abandoned and almost for gotten, it withstood the passing seasons. 
Colonies of bees sought refuge beneath its dilapidated roof and poison ivy
crawled and wound over its neglected walls.
In 1976 the Calvert Retired Teachers Association, looking for a
Bicentennial Year project, decided to restore Port Republic School Number
7. On July 24, 1977, after months of hard work by teachers and community
volunteers the old school bell rang out once more and the little one-room
school house, filled with its memories and memorabilia, was ready for
visitors.
Port Republic School Number 7 is located on the grounds of the Christ Church.
-from a brochure from the Calvert County
Department of Economic Development
- photos taken August 2006, TMC.
-page last updated August 2006, TMC.
|
