History lesson: Weymouth School was once first of its kind

A plaque from the state of Ohio now marks the historical importance of the Weymouth School in Medina Township which was the first county supported as the first school for disabled students in the state of Ohio.

The Ohio Historical Marker plaque, which was unveiled Saturday, honors community members support of the school.

Built in 1925, it was a public elementary school until 1956 when St. Paul’s Episcopal Church began using the building as school for disabled students, doing so until the 1960s

In 1960, voters approved an operating levy to support the school, which would later become the Medina County Board of Developmental Disabilities’ Achievement Center in Granger Township. The achievement center moved from the site in 1992.

Society President Susan McKiernan said when the society filed an application to receive the plaque she included a 64 page letter outlining the history of the school.

“It was so important to me that it was the first school that served handicapped children,” she said.

The Preservation Society now uses the school building as a museum, preserving the history of the Weymouth area.

McKiernan said it’s remarkable that the school was able to operate as a first-through-eighth-grade elementary school until the 1950s.

“They wanted to them to start attending Medina Schools, but the people here really loved their community school,” she said.

The society has preserved a museum with artifacts from the school and even tracked down the names of most of the teachers who taught there.

McKiernan said when the school was built in 1925, residents brought their tools and horses and helped assemble the roof and other structures.

The school was built three years before electricity lines were connected to the Weymouth area.

When electricity did arrive in 1928, it would take another several years for the building to get connected to the line.

“They couldn’t afford the electricity, so the students produced plays to raise the money,” McKiernan said.

McKiernan said Weymouth’s older schools also have remarkable histories.

The second and third schoolhouses built in 1829 and 1840 are now residential homes that sit near the current school site.

“The only school house we are missing is the log cabin home that Eliza Northrop taught in,” McKiernan said.

Northrop was the first female teacher at the first school in Medina County in 1817.

http://medinagazette.northcoastnow.com/2014/10/28/history-lesson-weymouth-school-first-kind/