Board recommends change to Southington historic site

SOUTHINGTON

The Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board has recommended that the 2011 National Register listing for Chalker High School in Southington be amended to include the adjacent elementary school building.

Both were completed in 1907 as part of Southington Township’s first centralized school campus, built at 4432 state Route 305.

Together, they illustrate the local response to a major change in rural education that took place statewide in the early 20th century, from teaching children in one-room schoolhouses scattered throughout the township to holding classes in a single central location.

The elementary school was not part of the original Chalker High School National Register nomination because of later alterations to the building that have since been removed. If the amendment is approved, the title of the National Register listing would change from “Chalker High School” to “Southington Township School,” to reflect that the amended listing is for the entire 1907 school campus, comprising the 1907 high school, the 1907 elementary school and the Civil War memorial built between them in 1910.