Sibleytown School

Description:	Drawing of the Sibleytown School, Old North School 1851. Drawing of the Sibleytown School, Old North School 1851, made by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute artist and architect.The building which housed the Sibleytown School or Old North School is still standing at the southwest corner of Third and Locust streets. It has been many years since it served as a school but the essential structure is the same as the original.The site was purchased by the school board from the Sibley heirs in 1850 and a school erected which was opened for classes in the fall of 1851. Mr. Henry H. Teel was the first teacher in the school. There were two classrooms but they must have been fairly large as they were later divided up to make smaller rooms when the building was converted to residential purposes. This change was made sometime after 1864 when the building was sold and ceased to function as a school.I have not been able to find a drawing or photograph of the building while it still served as a school, so that I do not know what changes were made beyond what was said in an old newspaper clipping of some forty years ago which stated that the principal changes in the building then were the additions of partitions to adapt it to living purposes and the usual replacement to be expected in the life of a building. The newspaper illustration accompanying the article shows the same openings as exist today with the difference that the window sash were divided into small panes which is not the case today, and it also shows the texture of the brickwork which has since been stuccoed over.This is neither the earliest school in the city nor the most pretentious one, but I believe it is the earliest surviving building which was built to serve as a school. Numerous small private schools were conducted in early years in peoples homes or in church buildings and some of these may still exist, but they belong in a different classification and I believe this can be called the earliest surviving grade or district school building in Terre Haute.
Origin:	01/01/2005
Contributor(s):	Peddle, Julie, 1899-1979;
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rose/id/814
Collection:	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Logan Library
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Architectural drawings Architecture Schools Dwellings Architecture Education Domestic Life

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