LAUREL MAGAZINE, APRIL ISSUE 2006
Hampton A. Pell, in 1907, built a schoolhouse on his own property in Cashiers Valley. Prior to that time, there had not been a real public school structure in which to teach the youngsters. From 1907 until the 1920s the children of Cashiers Valley received their primary education from grades one through seven in this small building. Heating was provided by a pot-bellied stove; students sat on long wooden benches, later replaced by second hand school desks; leftovers from breakfast plus a baked sweet potato were brought from home for lunch; and there was an outdoor toilet. Inside there was a stage, a blackboard and a plain table for the teacher to keep his things in. Among those possessions was an old fashioned dinner bell which the teacher rang to call in the students. The small bell was eventually replaced by a real school bell which is still part of the building and quite visible above the front porch.
In 1913, Madge Dillard started the first grade in the Cashiers schoolhouse, with her cousin Fred Zachary being her teacher. He was teaching all grades. She remembers him as being a good and helpful teacher but one Sunday at church, he reached over and pinched what felt like a hunk out of her arm. It was nothing personal – just Fred’s way of playing a joke. Madge later became a teacher and taught in this same school she had attended as a child. The History of Jackson County, edited by Max R. Williams lists the following school teachers in Cashiers, up until 1910: Miss Demerries Long; Miss Hattie Norton; Miss Minnie Norton; Miss Bird Zachary; T. Roy Zachary and Miss Essie Zachary.
When the building ceased its use as a school, the Pells added on a shed on one side where they stabled cows and horses, storing the hay and feed inside. It was a great place for children to play on a rainy day. Later, the structure was rented to families as a residence and then was used as a law office for many years. The Cashiers Historical Society even used part of it for temporary storage of the artifacts taken from the Zachary-Tolbert House during its stabilization.
Still standing, the building has never been moved and the exterior remains basically unchanged since the time it was built. There are, however, two important differences. When originally built, the schoolhouse faced today’s Cashiers School Road and all who entered had to climb steep steps to reach the front door. After Highway 107 South was “straightened out” and paved in the 1930s, the front porch was moved to the back of the building, thus reversing the front and back of the old structure.
The second major change occurred just a few years ago when A. William McKee purchased the property and conducted an extensive interior renovation of the historic building. A popular coffee house and gourmet bakery occupied the space for a few years and now “The Condiment Shop,” owned by Kimberly Baldwin has taken up residence. Just this past January, Worldwide Specialty Foods contacted Kimberly, whom they had found on the Internet, and put in a rush order for rhubarb preserves to be served at an upcoming Super Bowl event. In the spot where almost 100 years ago Cashiers’ children ate their biscuits filled with their mother’s homemade jam, big pots of rhubarb bubbled away, twenty five jars were filled and shipped to Seattle, Washington in time for the Super Bowl. What an interesting history the old Cashiers Valley schoolhouse has had.
