Long before sprawling campuses, technology-enabled classrooms and packed parking lots, education in Butler County fit inside a single brick room.
When Ohio became a state in 1803, Butler County was founded alongside it. But it would take decades before formal schooling reached every corner of the county. By the late 1800s, as farmland was divided and small communities took shape, formal education institutions were created.
One of the earliest buildings from that era still stands along what is known today as Princeton Road in Liberty Township.
A One-Room Beginning
Built in 1887, Hughes School is a one-room schoolhouse, just over 1,100 square feet of brick and restored history. It sits on a one-acre lot beside today’s Liberty Early Childhood School, part of the Lakota Local School District.
Back then, Liberty Township was dotted with six single-room schoolhouses, each about two miles apart so children could walk, or ride a horse, to class.
“The main thing back then was a place for formal education,” says Paul Stumpf, president of the Liberty Township Historical Society.
Inside Hughes School, that education unfolded in a single shared classroom. There were two cloakrooms, a potbelly stove, a slate chalkboard and outside, a small bell tower and outhouse. Before electricity, tall windows lining each side of the room did double duty: letting in natural light to illuminate lessons and keeping air circulating during warmer months.
At Hughes School, students of all ages learned together, with teachers focusing on the essentials: reading, writing and arithmetic. Among the classroom materials were McGuffey Readers, written by William Holmes McGuffey, a professor at Miami University.
Hughes School operated until 1923. Five years later, Liberty Elementary, operating today as Liberty Early Childhood School, was built next door.
A Community Saves Its School
Time wasn’t always kind to Hughes School. By the mid-1970s, the building had fallen into disrepair. That’s when residents stepped in.
The Liberty Township Historical Society formed with a mission to restore the school. At the time, the building was owned by the Liberty Union School District, and restoring it would cost about $8,000 in materials, a significant amount for a grassroots effort.
So the community got creative.
“We sold Christmas trees. We had bake sales. We had auctions,” says Stumpf. “We even bought chocolate chips and sold chocolate chips and chocolate chip cookies, which turned out to be our biggest fundraiser.”
Residents provided the labor themselves, and the restored building is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today it looks much as it would have in the 1880s, complete with a set of McGuffey Readers on the shelves.
Hughes School opens its doors once a month for Liberty Township Historical Society meetings and welcomes the community to visit during open houses each May and December.
“It is good for the kids to see and get an appreciation for what they have now,” Stumpf says.
It would have been hard to imagine in 1887 what formal education in Liberty Township would become nearly 140 years later. What began as a handful of single-room schoolhouses has blossomed into the modern-day Lakota Local School District, serving approximately 17,000 students.
Hughes School | 6010 Princeton Road, Liberty Township | 513.678.8346 | TravelButlerCounty.com/listing/hughes-schoolhouse
Travel Butler County's America250
This year marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the start of the United States of America. In upcoming issues, we partner with Travel Butler County to honor this milestone with a series of stories highlighting historic sites across the county.
“These historical sites are important to Butler County because they reflect the people, places and moments that have shaped local communities over time,” says Kathryn Rawlinson, Vice President, Marketing & Communications for Travel Butler County.
Visit TravelButlerCounty.com/america250 for a list of local celebrations and to download their Time Travel Trail app including 46 suggested stops.