Pictured are the wooden desks from the one-room school at Scandia used by students in the 1800s. They are about a yard wide to accommodate two or three small children, which could facilitate tutoring of young children by an older student. These also saved space when enrollments suddenly increased.

The Elk Township Historical Society welcomes the public to an open house at the historic 1870s one-room Scandia School on Saturday from 1-4 p.m.

The Scandia School was closed by the Warren County School Board in 1999 after 125 years of service to the community. A committee of concerned citizens immediately came together to form the “Committee To Save Scandia School,” which later became incorporated as the Elk Township Historical Society.

The ETHS has restored the school to its original appearance, and the classroom features historic schoolroom furniture and its original painted wooden blackboard. Over a century of enrollment records are available for visitors seeking family members who may have once been students there. Limited enrollment records are also available from the eleven other one-room schools that at one time existed in Elk Township.

An additional classroom was added in 1890 to accommodate rapidly increasing enrollments. This classroom is now a museum for displays that explain life in Elk Township when it was a thriving community of family farms. Displays include such topics as pre-electricity food preparation and preservation, haying, the Scandia Coal Mine, distinguished local war veterans, a Victorian parlor and genealogic information, with early photos of Elk Township’s prosperous farms, including the Roper family farm, which now lies beneath Kinzua Lake near the Roper Hollow boat launch.

Another interesting nearby historical museum in Scandia is the Shed. Here one can see historic cars, a rustic hunting camp, a wooden Pennsylvania post office with the post-mistress’s window, customers’ mail boxes and a gift shop.

After an afternoon of learning about Elk Township’s historic past at our museums, visitors can stop by the Scandia Store for a freshly-made sub sandwich or a delicious pizza, capped off by an ice cream cone, which may be enjoyed at the Elk Township pavilion and playground.

The ETHS welcomes you to this afternoon of local history and community.