New adventures of old Bower Hill School
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Mary Robinson, left, and Kayla Weil are ready to greet visitors to Bowers School House Preschool and Learning Center.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
The school’s bell tower, October 2016 and August 2018
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Tom Robinson also is responsible for restoring the former Thompsonville School on Camp Lane in Peters Township, now Arlecchino Ristorante.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
An inscription commemorates the school’s construction date.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
The old Bower Hill School was in dilapidated condition when Tom Robinson bought the property from Peters Township in 2016.
The opening of Peters Township’s new Bower Hill Elementary School in 1999 seemed to hasten the demise of its namesake predecessor.
At that point, the onetime one-room schoolhouse across Bower Hill Road served as rental property, but within a few years, no one lived there anymore. Eventually, the sight of scraggly pines and waist-high weeds greeted anyone who ventured close enough to read the small yellow sign on the boarded-up front door, announcing: Danger.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
The building’s front, October 2016 and August 2018
“This one, there was no true hope for,” Mary Robinson recalled. “Everyone had given up on this property.”
Everyone, it seems, except for her father-in-law.
Tom Robinson already had bought and restored the former Thompsonville School on Camp Lane, which now serves as an upscale restaurant. In October 2016, he purchased the Bower Hill School property from Peters Township, paving the way for its third century of housing an educational facility.
His daughter-in-law is owner of the soon-to-open Bowers School House Preschool and Learning Center, continuing a tradition that dates back to 1835, when the children of Peters Township had their first opportunity for a free public education. One of the initial four schools was the Bowers House.
The building the Robinsons rescued dates back to 1908, as an inscription above the front door announces to visitors.
A century and a decade later, the new school is providing education for children starting at age 3 with preschool and progressing through pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and a before- and after-school program for students in first through sixth grades.
As you’d imagine, extensive work went into the transition.
“We took it down to the shell,” Mary Robinson said. “We had to strip it down entirely. A tree had fallen on the corner of the original building. We had to tear down the entire back corner structure and rebuild that from the ground up. The entire foundation had to be redone and reinforced.”
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
The addition to the existing building offers plenty of space for a 21st-century learning environment.
On top of all that was construction of a two-story, 30-by-80-foot addition that serves as the educational wing, providing plenty of space for the variety of programs for different age groups that the learning center offers.
Robinson said she especially is proud of the kindergarten program, which students can attend for the full day, or before or after half-day sessions at other schools. Peters Township School District’s curriculum is integrated to help with continuity and preparing youngsters to advance to higher grades.
Bowers School House’s director is Kayla Weil, a South Fayette Township resident who has several years of experience in preschool teaching and administration.
“Early education is very, very important to these kids,” she said. “It gives them foundational skills that they really need to go into school, and it gives them a structure and a routine of what they’re going to be doing there. So it’s a very good preparation for them.”
As for her school being able to provide those types of opportunities, Robinson credits her father-in-law with taking the initiative to save a presumably doomed piece of Peters Township history.
“He sees things that other people don’t,” she said. “There aren’t many people around here who take on that kind of work the way he has.”
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Bowers School House Preschool and Learning Center has two outside playgrounds, both protected by fencing. The 30-by-80-foot addition, to the left, serves as the center’s educational wing, while the renovated existing building contains the front lobby, offices and a kitchen.