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Marg Zavaros Chronicle Special Chronicle Staff Does a oneâ€"room schoolhouse conjure up visions of "Little House on the Praime"? Abraham Erb, Waterloo‘s first resident. helped finance the schoolhouse. In 1820 he tried to donate five acres of land for the school, but instead was paid five pounds for it. The rent and profits from the land were to help pay the schoolmaster on behalf of children whose parents couldn‘t afford the two or three dollar tuition fee. In 1829 he willed the five per cent interest from $2,000 to help maintain the school and help needy children attend. The Upper Canada Common School Act of 1816 slated that once 20 students were enrolled a $25 grant would be available to help pay the teacher Students pard a minimal tuition fee and provided firewood over the winter. Building and mainte nance were the responsibility of the community The area surrounding the house is cordoned off with sagging snowfence to discourage curiosity seekers and vandals. On the immediate horizon a panoramic view of Waterloo appears The deadening silence is broken by the notâ€"tooâ€"distant whine of heavy earthâ€"moving equipment. signalling the approach of industrial development Situated on land formerly owned by Magna Internaâ€" tional, the house faces Country Squire Road on 162 acres adjacent to Woolwich township. Two years ago Petwich Holdings negotrated with Magna for rights to the farmhouse. with plans to dismantle and relocate it to Regina St. as a commercial building to house boutique and cafes. However the project failed to materialize when an appropriate site on Regina St. could not be found At one time the house had a full twoâ€"storey veranda across the front and down one side. Currently only the rectangular shape remains with logs exposed and a few remaining clapboards that once covered the entire exterior The building was used as a schoolhouse for 23 years. Later it was moved near what is now Kitchenerâ€"Water}oo Collegiate, and rented for five dollars a month to an exâ€"slave and his family for 50 years In 1892 a private citizen lobbied the town council which moved the log building to Waterloo Park. There it rests. 168 years old An 1839 log house perched on a hill at the end of a laneway on the northern outskirts of Waterloo will soon be the subject of a $20,000 feasibility study conducted by The City of Waterioo Named the Christuan Schneiderâ€" Harvey Martin house after the first and last farm owners. its windows are now boarded and signs prociaim that this structure is of historical significance and is not to be destroved Constructed in 1839, the three floor farmhouse is 40 ft by 44 ft. high with logs 8 inches by 24 inches. Authorities estimate that it may well be the largest log structure in Southwestern Ontario Waterloo‘s first schoolhouse wasn‘t quite like that. Built in 1820, it was a 20 by 24 foot log cabin built on lot #3 Church (now Central) St PAGE B4 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 10, 1988 Settlers A record of the house appeared in the 1851 census and Eleven years later the log cabin was rebuilt by students from Laure] Vocational School. The restoâ€" ration included replacing the foundation, refitting the floor, windows and roof as well as whitewashing the interior. The work was sponsored by three teachers‘ federations. "Ultimately ail Laure] students became involved in one way or another," Bill Paterson, technical director in charge of administration, commented at the time. "They were all doing something for the project."‘ A plaque outlining the history and rebuilding was placed on the schoolhouse. Jonathon Good, the first schoolteacher was paid $171.44 for teaching during the winter and had to supplement his income through other work during the summer Good was a small delicate man who, despite his stature, "kept good order in school and out of it". He was an expert penman and more proficient in German than English. The building received its first major repairs in 1961 . There was a threeâ€"month search for a carpeter who could do the work. Carpenter Simeon Martin was 69 when he replaced the roof. "There isn‘t much call for roofs like this anymore," he commented at the time In 1842 the schoolhouse was closed due to over crowding and the building moved. It was rented to a oneâ€"legged man named Carroll and his descendants The huistorical background and genealogy of the families that lived here can be traced. The land was originally purchased by Christian H Schneider, a resident of Doon,. sometime before 1820 for his son Joseph. It is believed the present structure was erected by Joseph Snyder (note the surpame spelling had been changed) in 1839 who then passed it on to his son Christian B. Snyder. He in turn divided his land between three of his children Joseph, Franklin and Lovina. Lovina married Israel Gingrich and they occupied the house for their lifetime. Lovina‘s daughter Susanne married Amos Gingrich (a distant relative) and they lived on the farm for 33 vears from 1921â€"1954. Amos is presently 92 years old and spends the cold winter days in a small brick bungalow. In an interview with The Chronicle he smiled as he remembered the time he spent on this farm. "My wife‘s mother was old Christian B. Snyder‘s daughter. Susanne knew all about the house â€" she was born there. We always knew the big logs were there. I saw how big they really were when we cut a window for a bathroom. l never knew there was a fireplace either, it was plastered over sometime before We had a wood furnace for heat. We got hydro and a pressure system to draw water from the spring house to the barn around 1937. I‘ve got some pictures around somewhere, I‘ll hunt them up sometime and I‘d like to save them â€" even framed and put in that house someday so they‘ll be saved." _ A colour picture taken from the air sometime during later in an inventory conducted from 1986â€"70 by the Waterloo Historical Society. The society found noteworâ€" thy a central fireplace,. sixâ€"panel doors throughout. an attic door with wooden hinges and a spring house with a good flowing spring Waterioo‘s first schoolhouse, built in 1820, has a colourful history. A personal project of Waterioo founder Abraham Erb, it later housed a family of former siaves. For instance, did Christian Schneider or his son Joseph fell these massive logs and build the house themselves or was it the work of some ingenious carpenter or group of builders who build houses to stand for centuries? Is this house unique or are there other log structures throughâ€" out the Waterloo Region yet to be discovered? Old houses do not give up their secrets easily. The answer to many of these questions and more have gone to the grave. "It could be converted back into a farm with animals and the house could be used as a children‘s museum," he said. The city has allocated $20,000 for a feasibility study that will commence soon, said Roughley, and $260,000 for renovations of the house in 1989. The city has stored some interior fixtures and they will be replaced in the future, he added. ‘"When landscaping and renovating we‘ll be looking for the remains of old foundations and a garbage dump to provide clues about former earlier structures." Meanwhile the future of the house is undecided. If it is preserved and incorporated with a recreation area there will remain numerous questions surrounding its history. When Amos Gingrich sold the property to Harvey Martin, it ended over a centuryâ€"long family ownership Harvey Martin spent 30 vears farming here before he sold it to Magna International. When Magna decided not to locate in Waterloo, the City purchased the 162 acre property last September , Don Roughley, the city‘s chief administrative officer, said the city will develop some of the land for industry while the house and acreage to the west of the house could be used as a recreation area. the 1950‘s shows the buildings and a large vegetable garden surrounded by lush green fields Te P e whee "Y4.¢ * < n es Je xo4 . V Paiihe ol + o tm n it 1299 ifi