Middleport Union High School

Middleport Union High School

A post card of the Middleport High School which was built shortly after the Civil War ended. It once stood in the location near where the Middleport Post Office stands today (2019).

According to: A.F. Lederer, POMEROY BEND, p. 408

"At Middleport, plans for the erection of a new three-story brick school building with a Town Clock in its cupola, were on the way in 1865; Mr. Haptonstall plastered the building during the summer of 1867. These are the only definite facts found regarding the time of erection of Middleport's new Union School, or Graded School, the two terms still meaning the same in Ohio. The structure consisted of ten rooms, a large Hall for school exhibitions and public performances, and a superintendent's office. Bricks for the new building were made, sun-dried and kiln-fired, on the commons directly facing the school-the same whereon the above mentioned brick Jail was built in 1875. Water for mixing the plaster and for other purposes needed was piped from the "old Fisher coal bank" in the hillside back of the new building. The most artistic feature of Middleport's new Union School Building was said to be the winding stairway extending from the first to the third floor. The town's especial pride was the Town Clock in the cupola, funds for which had been secured by exhibitions, concerts, cantatas, and other forms of public entertainment (see below). The public time piece was ordered from Germany by Philip Huber, the town's first clock-and-watchmaker, who also installed it in its place."

postcard