Myers Grade School (Free School) was first built in 1868. It opened for students on January 18, 1869. It has served Cannelton continuously as a public elementary school now for 135 years. It housed grades 1-8 when it was first built. It has housed grades 2-6 up until recently and now it houses grades 3-6. 

It has only one class for each grade. This building is the oldest continuously used school building in the United States! Myers gained its name after a much-loved teacher, Oscar "Daddy" Myers upon his retirement. 
Much of the school building is original. The radiators are the original ones, along with the cloak room and the slate chalkboards. The floors are hard wood and the stairways are most interesting: one side, the boys' side, has one more stair than the girls' side.

*Click here to visit a website about Myers, created by Cannelton Elementary Media Club during the school year of 2003-2004!

Interviews:
first with Mr. William Bennett, principal of Cannelton Elementary for more than 42 years- **Sadly, Mr. Bennett passed away.  He will always be remembered for his love and devotion to the city of Cannelton and to Cannelton City Schools.**

"Things I remember about Myers Grade School"

• The belfry on top of the building with the bell is now sitting in front of the school. It was removed from the top of the school when it became unstable.

• When the building was first built it was also a highschool.

• Each room downstairs was heated with a "potbellied stove" when it was first built.

• The excess heat from these stoves was the only heat source for the classrooms upstairs.

• One time there was a well house in the corner of the yard on 6th and Taylor Streets. That is where the students got their drinks.

• Myers had an auditorium upstairs where the current fifth grade is.

• There were two gaslights on the front of the building that were mainly used to indicate the building was being used after dark.

• There is one more step on one end of the building than the other.

• The stone used in the building of our school was quarried from Rock Island (upriver from here).

• The twenty-foot high ceilings are very unique to structures found today.

• The student desks were originally on runners.

• The building was heated by burning coal mined from the hillside.

• Some of the original items are: the radiators, the cloak rooms, and the slate chalkboards.

Other thoughts: 
Last year, our Cannelton Media Club at Myers Grade School ranked first place in our division in the International Media Festival. Cannelton Elementary (Myers and St. Michael's) have hosted a Bike-A-Thon for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital for over 20 years, earning thousands of dollars to help sick children suffering from cancer and other childhood diseases. Myers has held many different other fundraisers too with St.Michaels. Two of the biggest changes at Myers is the wiring to allow the use of the Internet and phone connections.

 

Second interview with Margaret Schank... formerly Cannelton Elementary secretary -

" I started to school here in 1947. I was six years old. We always started school the Tues.. after Labor Day. my first day of school it was raining... I wore rubber boots, I had my umbrella and I walked all the way to school. My first grade teacher was Mrs.. Gladys Cummings... and I always remember we would sing every morning in her class. We would sing a song called "Good Morning, Good Morning".
It went.... 
"Good Morning, good morning, good morning to you. 
Good morning good morning and how do you do?" 
... and we would always shake hands with our neighbors. Another thing... we had crackers and milk every morning. and in the cold weather like today... the girls could wear long pants on under the dress... girls could not wear pants normally, but on cold days we were allowed to wear them under our dresses. I remember walking home.. I usually would walk backwards because the cold wind was too cold to face. No one had a car, (well few) but not many. My second grade teacher was Margaret Fox (Brooke's great-grandmother) Mrs.. Ella Zellers was my third grade teacher. I enjoyed her class because she made learning a fun thing! One of the most fun times was when our class presented a Christmas play and it was a huge beautiful home... we presented the nativity scene... I was an angel. We went into her home and we had a big time! My mother also made my Halloween outfit, made out of crepe paper... it was pretty, infact I won a prize one time at the Halloween Festival for one."

 

We asked her has the school changed much?...

"Quite a bit! (she showed photos)... there was a cupola... that held the bell on top of the building. There was a black iron fence that went all around. We played marbles in the dirt! There was a long slide, and we had swings. There was a merry-go-round and a Maypole which is gone now. (the Maypole had chains with rings that you had to hold onto... you could really get your head bumped from them if you were not careful). Another thing was bike racks.. most kids walked or rode bikes to school. The bell was removed during the 1940s- Gladys Cummings and Bob Cummings stored it at their home for many years and then it was donated back to the school... it was returned to school in 1993 and is now outside the front ... but it was on top for years and years. "  **Read our latest interview with Mrs. Schank...on the new Myers Grade School website!

**The last photo is courtesy of the Perry County Museum