Old Stone School House

This is a picture of the first public school building in Princeville, also known as the Old Stone School House.  It was one of the oldest buildings in Princeville and was erected in 1846.  It was located on the northeast corner of Canton and French Streets (now West Main St. and South Cottage Grove).  It was built from donations of stone, lime, lumber and labor and a small amount of money.  The gable on the south had 1846 carved in stone to signify the year it was built.  The stone school house replaced the first public school which was established in 1834 in a log cabin southeast of the Rock Island Depot.  The first teacher at the the old stone school building was Benjamin F. Slane from 1847 to 1848. 

In 1866, the school district rented the vacant Princeville Academy building (Princeville Academy closed for a few years in 1866 because the war took students away from town) because the old stone school building was not large enough.  The first public school building (known as "Old Brick") on the West Main Street school property was built in 1872.  That building was replaced in 1907 with a larger brick structure that was dedicated in February of 1908.  That building housed the high school and grade school until the current school buildings were built.