{"nrhp_refnum":"00000952","name":"Clarksburg Schoolhouse","other_names":["Bethel Schoolhouse","Clarksburg Townhouse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Clarksburg Rd. 1 mi. E of Cty Rd. 800 N/2025 E","address_restricted":false,"city":"Clarksburg","county":"Shelby County","state":"IL","lat":39.33207559400006,"lon":-88.74979344399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-01-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-room schoolhouse built circa 1892 on Clarksburg Road near the village of Clarksburg in Shelby County, Illinois, on about one acre surrounded by farmland. It was originally called Bethel School and later served as the Clarksburg Townhouse.","why_significant":"The school is locally significant under Criterion A for education. It educated children of the Clarksburg area from about 1892 until the early 1960s. It is one of the last surviving rural schoolhouses in the area, since the nearby Mode Schoolhouse was demolished in 2000 and other area schools have been destroyed.","narrative":"Clarksburg Schoolhouse is a one-and-a-half-story, ell-shaped frame building put up around 1892 in rural Shelby County, Illinois. It began as Bethel School and took the Clarksburg name after the village was formed. It retains its original horizontal clapboard siding, wooden windows, hardwood floors, chalkboards, wainscoting and pressed-metal ceilings in its two classrooms. A kitchen was added in the 1930s, a coatroom in the 1940s, and restrooms in the 1960s. The school taught grades one through eight until 1948, when seventh and eighth graders began attending school in Shelbyville. Younger grades continued until the early 1960s. The township then bought the building for one dollar and used it as the Clarksburg Townhouse, hosting voting, community gatherings and 4-H meetings until 1998. It is now vacant. It is valued as a rare survivor, because the nearby Mode Schoolhouse was demolished in 2000 and other local schools are gone.","period_of_significance":"circa 1892-1950","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"other: Two-Room School","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Current function is listed as vacant/not in use; the building served as the township townhouse until 1998.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.623574-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/17/8941/28894117/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/00000952.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000952/898ddb7a54-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000952/898ddb7a54-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clarksburg_Schoolhouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clarksburg_Schoolhouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28894117","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarksburg_Schoolhouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16890448"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/shelby-county/clarksburg-schoolhouse-00000952/"}