National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

Southington Local School District Campus
Name of Property
Trumbull County
Ohio
County and State
Bloomfield; 1914, and Mesopotamia in 1923. A survey completed in 1981 of Trumbull County by the Trumbull
County Planning Commission notes seven school buildings constructed 1906-1936, including Southington’s. Of
those seven, one is extant, in addition to Southington; Mesopotamia’s school, heavily altered, is now used as an
elementary building for the consolidated Mespo-Bloomfield school district. The development of neighboring
Farmington Township’s educational system was atypical of rural townships in the county due to the early
creation of the Farmington Normal School which became the Western Reserve Seminary in 1854. Farmington
did construct a distinguished Neo-Colonial high school building ca. 1920, which was vacated when Farmington
and Bristolville Township school districts merged and it now sits empty. Due to its proximity to Warren, and
city utilities, Champion Township developed a substantial commercial base early and mid twentieth century,
with accompanying residential growth. In 1965, Champion built a modern new high school and converted its
historic (ca. 1915) high school to use as junior high and elementary facility.
As a result of the consolidation of rural township school districts and new school facility construction within
Trumbull County, Southington Township’s centralized school campus is the last one to still be used for its
original use, and as illustrated above, most of the rural public high school buildings constructed during this
period within the Trumbull County have been demolished or abandoned.
The centralization of Southington’s school system was not only early compared to much of the rest of the
county, but was also unique in that it was in part privately funded and resulted in a rare example of a privately
endowed public high school in Ohio. Much like the rest of the state, the idea of centralization was controversial
in Southington when it was first raised in 1903. Citizens were concerned about the potential loss of the control
of local tax revenue as well as the issue of transporting their children outside their own immediate
neighborhood. The question appeared on the Township ballot in that year and was soundly defeated. The issue
was revisited in Southington in 1905 when township native, Newton Chalker (1842-1934) proposed to the
township on September 14 th that he would build and donate a sophisticated, modern high school for the
community, if the community would agree to centralize the school system and provide an elementary building.
The high school building that he proposed and eventually built would also contain a fully stocked public
library, community meeting room and auditorium. On October 10, 1905 a second vote within the community
was held and this time the issue passed by a vote of 122 to 34. 6
According to his unpublished autobiography, Chalker was born in Southington in 1842. He obtained his
primary education within the township and, beginning in 1856, attended the Western Reserve Seminary 7 at
West Farmington, five miles north of Southington, earning his board there as a laborer. His education would be
interrupted by a lack of funds and family obligations until 1862 when he finally completed his secondary
education in Farmington. At that time he enlisted in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry to serve in the Civil War. He
trained at Camp Chase near Columbus and was sent to Harper’s Ferry early in July, 1862 where he joined about
ten thousand other Union soldiers to protect the Potomac River crossing located there. In September, an attack
by General Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson resulted in his being taken prisoner and held until the end of the war
when he was released and returned home to Southington. After his military duty, Chalker studied law until
1868, finally establishing a law practice in Akron in 1869. In addition to his law practice, Chalker was also
involved in real estate development in Akron, subdividing a twenty one acre tract land acquisition into
residential lots in the ‘North Hill’ area. 8 In 1893, at the age of 51, Chalker retired and devoted his time to travel
6 A Son of Southington Offers to give Large Sum for the Erection of a High School, Warren Daily Tribune, 11 October 1905, p.1.
7 The Western Reserve Seminary was known as the Farmington Normal School until taken over by the Erie Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1854. The last commencement took place in 1906. None of the associated buildings are
extant.
8
Harriet Taylor Upton, A twentieth century history of Trumbull County, Ohio, Volume I1,( Lewis Publishing Co. 1909), p. 424.
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