The Beggarstown School, built c. 1740, is a historic school in
Beggarstown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Beggarstown or Bettelhausen was a small community that was located in the present day neighborhood of Mount Airy in Northwest Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It centered primarily along a stretch of relatively flat land along ...
, now part of the
Mount Airy neighborhood. It is a rare example of a school building from the colonial era.
Architecture and history
The small building has one-and-a-half stories and measures across the front, and along the sides. A brick el in the rear was added after a 1915 restoration. The four-bay front is constructed of
Wissahickon schist
The Wissahickon Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. It is named for the Wissahickon gorge in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.
In Maryland formations, the term "Wissahickon" is no longer used. Rocks in this c ...
ashlar, and the sides of stuccoed rubble. The school was altered in 1840.
A few of the original floorboards remain in the otherwise greatly altered interior.
The school is owned by the adjacent
St. Michael's Evangelical Lutheran Church. While most students were part of the Lutheran congregation, some attended simply because it was the closest local school. Its teachers taught basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, unlike the more sophisticated
Germantown Academy
Germantown Academy, informally known as GA and originally known as the Union School, is the oldest nonsectarian day school in the United States. The school was founded on December 6, 1759, by a group of prominent Germantown citizens in the Gree ...
or Union School which was located about one-and-a-half miles south.
[ See page 33.]
It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1971. It is also a
contributing building
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...
in the
Colonial Germantown Historic District
The Colonial Germantown Historic District is a designated National Historic Landmark District in the Germantown and Mount Airy neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania along both sides of Germantown Avenue. This road followed a Native Americ ...
, a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
Historic District
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
.
[NRHP Nomination Form for Beggarstown School](_blank)
1971, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage. The commission cares for ...
, CRGIS, accessed December 2, 2016.
It is currently home to Alena's Café.
See also
Concord School, a nearby school built in 1775
References
External links
*
{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia
School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia
Defunct schools in Pennsylvania
1740 establishments in Pennsylvania
Mount Airy, Philadelphia
Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Pennsylvania