National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

Southington Local School District Campus
Name of Property
Trumbull County
Ohio
County and State
designed in New York based on Longfellow’s ‘Excelsior’ in the center. The baseboards within the original
board of education office (the southwest corner of the building) are made of Italian marble, in the front foyer
are Georgia Creole marble and interior steps of gray Tennesse marble. (Photo 11, 12) A chestnut staircase leads
from the foyer to the second floor, interrupted by a landing halfway up which contains the stained glass
window. (Photo’s 13, 14) Accessed from the foyer on the first floor are administrative offices through an
arched opening flanked by chestnut pilasters adorned with applied medallions. Doors are original five
horizontal panel with transoms, with chestnut surrounds. Although windows have been replaced, the interior
surrounds have been retained as well as original size and profiles.
Originally, the board of education meeting room, township library and high school classroom were located on
the first floor of the Chalker Building, which had been built to accommodate a high school enrollment of 48
students. The second floor held a public auditorium with stage, also referred to as a ‘public hall designed to
hold 400 people’ in a newspaper article published in the Warren Tribune written about the opening of the
building. Upon the completion of the second elementary building in 1928-1929, which included a modern
gymnasium/basketball court and stage, the stage was removed from the Chalker building and the auditorium
divided into classrooms. At the same time, the library was moved from the first floor to the second floor of the
Chalker Building, replaced by administration offices on the first floor. In the 1980s the first floor was further
divided into additional offices, with original hardwood floors, window and doors and surrounds, marble and tile
left intact. (Photo 15) The partitions were sympathetically added without significant damage or loss to historic
material and could be removed in the future. The original gasoline generated blast furnace has been replaced
with modern heating and air conditioning, and gas lights replaced with electrical wiring sometime early in the
1920s 3 The slate roof was replaced by asphalt-shingles probably in the 1970s or 1980s.
The basement of the Chalker Building is accessed through a staircase located near the east entrance. The
basement is utilitarian with polished slate floors and was traditionally used for classrooms and lab space; it also
contains the only restrooms in the building.
The Chalker Building continues to house classrooms and administrative offices for Southington’s school system
and retains the feel and presence of a distinguished educational facility.
Civil War Monument
Southington’s Civil War Monument (1910) features the figure of a granite soldier at rest atop a banded twenty
foot granite column which rests upon a tri-part granite square base adorned with brass plaques affixed on all
four sides. (Photo 16) Bas relief panels on the base contain images of crossed sabers with a canteen that bears
USA, crossed rifles and crossed cannons with cannon balls. (Photo 17) The plaques contain quotes, the names
of the seventy Southington natives that served in the Civil War, the seven who served in the War of 1812 and
two in the Revolutionary War. It is one of two monuments erected in Ohio that reference the abolition of
slavery. 4 (Photo 18)
The monument is flanked by four granite blocks topped with two original Civil War mortars and two recreated
cannons. The original brass cannons have been placed in storage after one was stolen and later recovered in a
field. The monument and cannons are located on a grassy lawn, about twenty-five feet from the edge of State
Route 305 and flanked by the Chalker Building to the west, the 1906 elementary building to the east, and the
1928-1929 elementary building to the north. (Photo 19)
1906 Southington Elementary Building
3
All Lit Up: Southington Celebrates the Turning on of Electric Lights There, Warren Daily Tribune, 02 November, 1921. p. 1
4 Cincinnati Historical Society Website: Ohio Civil War Monuments in Ohio, http://library.cincymuseum.org/civilwar7menu.htm
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