School Street - White Mills The 1895 annual report of the White Mills Independent School District lists two schools in the village with two teachers and 170 students. In 1899 a large, two-story brick school, was built on land given by Christian and Elizabeth Dorflinger. The sixty by forty-five foot building had two large classrooms and a girls' bathroom on the first floor and three classrooms, a principal's office, and a boys' bathroom on the second floor. The thousand square foot center room served as the one-teacher, three-year high school. A boiler in the basement provided heat. As was the custom in factory towns everywhere, boys whose fathers were employees of Dorflinger Glass Company were expected to leave school by age nine or ten to apprentice at the factory. Most of the other students left by age fourteen to work on farms and in mills. Graduation records list four graduates in 1908, four in 1909, and in 1910. All of the 1910 class were women. The White Mills Independent School District joined the Wallenpaupack Jointure in 1959. The high school closed in 1950 and the elementary school in 1977. In 1978 the old brick school was sold to William and Russell George. It later became the studios and home of William and Lindsay Barrett George and their children. The building is much like the original with twelve foot ceilings, wooden floors, and large schoolhouse windows. The broad steps leading to the second floor show the wear of generations of students. The original white cupola adorns the roof, but the old school bell was given to the community and is maintained by the White Mills Fire Department.

This page was one month of the calendar and was made possible through the Wayne County Commissioners and a Tourism Promotion Committee’s Tourism Grant.