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Show Volume II , Issue I The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS October 1999 Eden’s Last Schoolhouse Researched and written by James R. Stallings In bold black letters above its double doors were the words, EDEN SCHOOL 1910. It was a two-story yellow brick building with a bungalow roof and wide eves. The front or entrance extended 12 or 16 feet further than the main structure and was about 12 to 16 feet wide. This part had a gable roof, giving the whole building a very dignified and stately appearance, also an ideal location for the bell. The school was located facing south in the center of the block where the park and fire station now are (1975). At that time it was on the main highway from Liberty and Eden to Huntsville or Ogden. The interior had spacious halls, two wide staircases, and four large classrooms. Each room had two outside walls lined with windows and two inside walls that were all blackboards. The school was designed for grades one to eight and would accommodate from one to two hundred students. The building was steam heated by a coal furnace located in a small basement at the north end of the school. All toilets were outside. For the first year or so drinking water and water for the boiler was packed from the pump at the old schoolhouse, some one hundred yards east. Drinking water was dispensed through a large tin can and a small copper cup on a copper chain. A new well was dug and a pump installed a little southeast of the front door. The old well is under the east wall of the [old] firehouse. Many changes took place in the ten years following the building of the new school; but the building stood the same until an addition was built on the north end with one large classroom and a wide hall joining the other upstairs classrooms, a stairs down to the first floor where another large hall and modern lavatories were located. The basement was also enlarged. A large pressure tank and pump, located in the basement, pumped water from the well for the drinking fountain, lavatories, and boiler. This addition was completed for the school year of 1919-20. Eden had its first ninth grade or first year of high school. Some of the changes following the new school were the building of an electric railroad through Ogden Canyon to Eden and to Huntsville for hauling freight and passengers. A few years later the electric power line was extended to Eden, and the town school had electric lights. By the fall of 1920, Eden had completed its culinary water system. The school continued to use its well for a year or so before hooking up with the water system. The years 1919 and 1920 saw the building of a hard-surfaced road through Ogden Canyon and an ever increasing number of automobiles. In 1922 a tenth grade was held in Eden with two students from Liberty attending. A law compelled students to attend school until age 18 years. Weber County, not having a central high school, paid Ogden City for each county student attending Ogden High School, beginning in 1923. Weber County also paid the students’ transportation up to 18 years of age. Many of the Ogden Valley students traveled back and forth on the streetcar, which made three trips a day to the Valley. This arrangement with Ogden City continued until 1926, when a new Weber County High School was completed on Washington Avenue a little north of 12th Street in Ogden City. Beginning with the school year 1926-27, a Weber High School bus gathered the 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students in Liberty and Eden, taking them to the new high school in Ogden. The 9th grade stayed in Eden a few years longer. The Eden school made a name for itself the year 1923-24 by winning the Weber County basketball championship and trophy. It was considered a major accomplishment, considering the size of the school when compared to the larger schools of the lower valley and the fact one of Eden’s main players was a one-armed man. While the new school was being finished for the school year of 1910, the old school (a one-story frame building which had been acquired by the town) was being remodeled for an amusement hall. On September 14, 1929, 2:00 p.m., a program was held and the new school was dedicated. The same evening a social was held in the amusement hall, and it was dedicated by David O. McKay. It was a big day for the people of Eden to have a new schoolhouse and to own their first amusement hall. They had every reason to be proud. Eden’s first school, a one-roomed log building, was built in 1866. In 1884 it was replaced by a larger frame building with a bell on top. This bell was removed when the building was made into an amusement hall, and it is possible it was put on the new schoolhouse that summer or fall. A large photograph of the first and second grades, taken during the first school year 1910-11, shows the new building with a bell on top, but no belfry. Later pictures of the school showed the bell enclosed in a square belfry with open sides and wide eves to prevent deep snow from interfering with the swinging of the bell. The bell was not only an essential part of a school, but also of the town to call the people together in case of fire or other emergencies. It saved many fires from spreading to other buildings or haystacks. On school days the bell rang for one minute at 8:30 a.m.; again at 9:00 a.m. there was another ring, and the children assembled four abreast on a wide cement walk from the front door to the highway. Each child was in his place according to the grade he was in. Inside the double doors two columns turned right and two columns turned left. The four lower grades marched down stairs. The higher grades marched two abreast up the two wide stairs. When they were dismissed from marching, the children were in front of their classroom where they could hang up their coats and hats and enter their classrooms through a swinging door at either corner. Marching was as much a part of school as the three R’s, and much time was spent in drill. At 10:30 a.m. a small bell or gong was sounded, and the children marched outside for recess. At 10:45 the bell rang again, and the children came running, most of them from across the street at the public park and baseball diamonds. They again marched from the school at 12:00 noon, the gong sounding the noon hour. Most children brought a lunch. Those who lived close went home. In bad weather children could go inside to eat. At 1:00 p.m. the big bell called them back to school. At 2:30 p.m. they marched out for another 15-minute recess. The big bell rang at 2:45 p.m., and the children all marched in again. School was out at 3:30 p.m., and again they marched out to go home. The four years the tenth grade was at Eden, Liberty’s tenth grade students attended; and the school year 192425, Huntsville tenth grade students also came to Eden in a small bus. These four years could be called the golden age of Eden School. The first day they hauled the students to Ogden can be known as the beginning of the end of Eden school and social community. In 1929, the ninth grade was taken to Huntsville, leaving the school with eight grades, the same as in the beginning. And a few years later, the seventh and eight grades along with the ninth were hauled to Huntsville to what had become known as the Valley School. The everincreasing popularity of busing students from one school to another was not the fact they had better buses, but that they had better roads, and the county had better equipment for removing snow in the winter. In years past, before compulsory education, the responsibility of getting to and from school fell to the student or his parents and had always been a problem of grave concern. At Eden school about one half the students lived within a radius of one-half mile. The other half lived on four different roads. Some homes SCHOOLHOUSE cont. on Page 17 Page 13 |