People, places and memory
The Friendship school that became a family home
Local history and resident recollection
At Friendship Mill, a school’s later life survives in a former resident’s family photographs.
A different Friendship school
Lillie Fitzpatrick’s 1987 thesis, quoted in the THS school history, dates a school on Powell Place Road to 1885, intended for children living too far from other classrooms. This was the sawmill community’s school, separate from the Friendship Bogs building later preserved in Tabernacle.
Home after the classroom
Joan Spaeth Harper supplied photographs of her family’s house and identified it as the former school. The society dates the family’s property purchase to 1938 and describes the building’s conversion to a residence. It reports demolition in the early 2000s after deterioration made the structure hazardous.
Sources and research limits
Tabernacle Historical Society, “Friendship One Room School House” supplies Fitzpatrick’s thesis quotation, Joan Spaeth Harper’s photographs and recollection, the 1938 purchase date and the reported demolition. The 1987 thesis itself, a school register and the deeds were not inspected; those could test the chronology. Family photographs show the building’s later use but do not prove every detail of its classroom arrangement. Research checked October 4, 2026.