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“The Third” School House (S.S. #5) - Digital Archive
The Digital Archive and complementary Interactive Heritage Register Map are initiatives to provide historical information regarding properties included on the Township’s Heritage Register. The Digital Archive only includes properties which have consented to include their heritage property on this archive.
We recognize that when the first Euro‐Canadian settlers arrived in what is now Puslinch Township, the Anishinaabe ancestors of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation had long established hunt camps in the area. Through written and verbal accounts we understand that the Anishinaabe interacted with the settlers in a friendly and cooperative manner. It is acknowledged that the development of the Township encroached upon their traditional way of life resulting in their displacement.
“The Third” School House (S.S. #5)
Biographical Info
“The Third” School House (School Section #5) on Concession 3, was built in 1868 on land donated by Alexander McKay. This fieldstone schoolhouse faces the road, and is one of the two school sections which is not part of a village or hamlet. Over the years, renovations have been done to the front entrance, including a concrete block added to the front area for washrooms, done in the mid-nineteenth century.
“The Third” closed in 1965 and became a private home, with the front entrance moving to the east side of the building instead of facing the road. The schoolhouse was sympathetically renovated in 2010, which re-installed a cedar-shake roof, restored the belfry, and covered the cement blocks at the front with horizontal wood siding.
The property is historically associated with education in Puslinch, as well as the farming community known as “The Third.”
Categories: Decade Built – 1860s, Decade Plaqued – 2010s, Historical Association – Scottish/Scotland, Materials – Frame With Siding, Materials – Stone, One-and-a-half storeys, Schoolhouse Style