East Buffalo Grade School

---

History

---

Beginning in 1809, the Pennsylvania Constitution required each
county to provide schooling for children between five and twelve years
of age whose parents could not afford it. Parents had to declare
themselves paupers before their children could attend these schools.
The General Assembly passed 'the Free School Act' in 1834 and in
1849 education became compulsory. In 1873, the Constitution
made it free. (Ref. World Book Encyclopedia page 224)

 
East Buffalo Grade School was located five miles west of Washington Pennsylvania. just one mile south of Route 40 (OLD NATIONAL ROAD) on East Buffalo Church Road. It sits next to and now belongs to 'The East Buffalo United Presbyterian Church' and is called 'The Fellowship Hall'
    Little information could be found concerning the history of the grade school itself. The builder could not be determined with absolute certainty but may have been Franklin Miles Coffee, as a block in the basement's west wall contains a carving - "1915 FMC".  A picture on another page was reported to have been taken of the first day of school in the new building in the year 1915.  The older 'prior' school was located across the road adjacent to the south east corner of the East Buffalo Cemetery and can be seen in pictures 1901, 1906 and 1913-1914.

For another view of East Buffalo School, Church and Cemetery, GO TO
 

Back to Home Page...........Webmaster

---

    This page was last modified:Sunday, 03-Dec-2006 21:27:47 MST