The Hood Octagonal School is an historic octagonal schoolhouse which is located in

Newtown Square Newtown Township, also referred to by the name of its post office of Newtown Square, is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Prior to 1789, it was part of Chester County, along with the rest of Delaware County. As of t ...

Delaware County, Pennsylvania Delaware County, colloquially referred to as Delco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. With a population of 576,830 as of the 2020 census, it is the List of counties in Pennsylv ...

. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2006.

History and architectural features

Built in 1841, this historic school is a small,

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

, one-story, eight-sided building with a wood shingled pyramidal roof. The school was abandoned sometime around 1865, and was then restored in 1964. ''Note:'' This includes It was added to the

in 2006. Representatives of the Newtown Square Historical Society have stated that this school was built by James Dunwoody, the father of

William Hood Dunwoody William Hood Dunwoody (March 14, 1841 – February 8, 1914) was an American banker, merchants, miller, art patron and philanthropist. He was a partner in what is today General Mills and for thirty years a leader of Northwestern National Bank, tod ...

, to replace an earlier log school that had been built by James' father.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania One-room schoolhouses in Pennsylvania School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Octagonal school buildings in the United States School buildings completed in 1841 Schools in Delaware County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Delaware County, Pennsylvania 1841 establishments in Pennsylvania