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Times -Advocate, April 3, 1991
London couple renovate
Winchelsea school house
WINCHELSEA - Os-
•
borne Township's No. 9
school house is a la-
bour of love foe.
Londoners Stan and
Joyce Sawicki.
"I saw it advertised," said Stan.
•'I took one look at it and fell in
love."
Stan purchased the two-storey
red brick school house three years
ago when he was still a bachelor
and now the house has become a
pet project for the newly-weds.
So far gutting the house has
been the most tedious task - one of
its former owners kept the house
as a piggery.
Overall, Stan says he is pleased
with the majestic structure. Al-
though all of its artifacts of histori-
cal significance have long since
been removed, the bell tower stil
stand sans bell.
"I want to find the original bell,
admits Stan, but adds it is more
likely that they will have to pur-
chase a new one. The staircase is
original as well as the bannister
and Stan hopes to restore it to its
former beauty soon.
"It's a lot of work," he said.
"But, it's worth it."
This year Stan and Joyce have
made their goals a little less idealis-
tic - they hope to have all new win-
dows in by December similar to the
originals.
"We've pushed back the move in
date a few times," he admits. Stan
and Joyce are doing the majority of
the work themselves, and he says
sometimes refurbishing a building
to its former beauty can be an ex-
pansive and tedious -task.
Once the wiring and plumbing
work is completed, Stan and Joyce
plan to start to furnish the house
with artifacts of the first World
War era.
'We still have 70 to
80 years of dust to
contend with"
The bedrooms and study will be
on the second floor and the main
floor will be an open concept area
with a walk-up kitchen. They also
i
have a full basement to contend
with and lots of square footage to
heat.
Stan plans to heat the building
with propane heaters with a wood
stove as a supplementary because
electric heat would be too costly
with the building's high ceilings.
"We still have 70 to 80 years of
dust to contend with," he laughed.
The drainage tile work at the
house has been completed and the
next step will be securing the insu-
lation on the building.
Stan and Joyce work year-round
at the house, but concede it can get
unbearably cold in.the winter.
"So far it has not been too bad,"
he said. "The family helps."
Sawicki believes it is unfortunate
that old school houses such as his,
are not preserved by historical soci-
eties or at least have some restric-
tions placed on them.
"It's hard to believe this place
was a barn," he said
It's been three years running, but
Stan and Joyce believe some day
all their hard work will pay off.
"You give it your best shot," he •
says. "There's defutitely a sense of
adventure in it."
.;v
An original - Stan Sawic 's school house still has its original stair- SS. No. 8 - Usbome Township's No. 6 two-storey school house was erected in 1919. Londoners Stan
case, but that's it. and Joyce Sawicki have been renovating it for three years.
Huron County's teachers' jobs not always ideal
GODERICH - There
was no such thing as a
"strike" for Huron
County teachers in
the 1800s.
In the 1800s
through the 1950s, one -room
school houses operated on the wiles
of one teacher who was responsible
for grades 1-8.
And according to the earliest
records, they were often underpaid.
As well, most teachers had to board
at neighbouring farmers houses
which took a good hunk of their
salary.
1863, the highest paid teacher
in Huron County made $400/year
and the lowest made $84 per an-
num. On average, a male teacher
would make $260/year without
board and a female teacher would
take home about $186/year in the
same situation.
Archives' records reveal m ici-
pal deficits played a key rokin I
keeping the teachers' salaries low.
Each teacher would be responsi-
ble for approximately 20 children
at a variety of learning levels. The
teacher would also be responsible
for filling a communal ink bottle
for the children and ensuring the'
school house was warm and secure.
And with all this came the regu-
lar visits from the prescribed com-
munity residents who were able to
question pupils about their teacher,
conduct exams and advise teachers.
On an annual basis, Huron
County teachers were visited about
1,734 times by numerous con-
cerned citizens including the school
superintendent, the district school
superintendent, trustees, judges,
clergy, wardens, councillors and
justices of the peace.
Competent teachers were scarce
and for many years, doctors and
clergy often doubled as instructors.
Changes came slowly with new
provincial government legislation,
but it wasn't until about the 1950s
that teachers' salaries were given
serious consideration.
a P
schoolhouse
This school house
buik n 1874 in
eiddulph, is
rumoured to be the
meeting place of the
infamous vigilantes
of Black Donnelly
fame:'
Vacant - The Varna school house (now abandoned) still has remnants of its school days.
History sketchy on school houses
GODERICH - Tracing the earli-
est schools of Huron County is a
formidable task.
In the 1960s, the Huron County
Board of Education became the
central administration office and
the provincial government ardcred
all of the individual township
boards of education to send their
records to the Ontario archives in
Toronto.
About three years ago the prov-
ince did an about-face and ordered
all archives records to return to the
county's archives - Huron County's
archives are in Goderich.
Village, town and hamlet plan-
ners usually did not bother to dmia
school plots on maps because most
one -room school hoses were at-
tached to a chinch or given a plot
by a farmer.
In the earliest days of the Huron
Tract, clergy were expected to
leach grades 1-8 to their congrega-
tion or wish. Often the school
houses were made of cedar logs
and were crude in structure.
Records of Huai Tract teachers
are also scarce. The only written
proof of their existence is their
placement on tax assessment lists.
Many of the archives' records
slip over prominent historical peri -
1 ods such as the east and second
World Wan, sad the most scar*
way 10 trace the number of remain-
•
ing school houses is to contact the
appropriate township office and
search out lot and concession num-
bers.
Usborne and Stephen Town-
ships' Sesquicentennial Commit-
tees are busy preparing far next
year's celebrations and several of
their members are local historians
including Don Finkbeiner on the
Stephen committee and Fem Dou-
gall on Usborne's.
CMOs brN
1