Friends Boarding School and Ohio Yearly Meetinghouse Historic District

Just east of Barnesville in Belmont County, Ohio, this district of roughly 316 acres brings together a Quaker boarding school campus, the Ohio Yearly Meetinghouse of 1878 with its Stillwater Cemetery, and two farmsteads. The school's centerpiece is the Main, a 2½-story red brick building first built in 1876 and reconstructed in 1911 after a fire destroyed its residential third floor. Its symmetrical form, slate hipped roofs, dormers, bell cupola and plain wooden porches reflect Quaker simplicity with modest Georgian Revival touches. Later additions include a 1938 gymnasium built partly from salvaged materials and a 1957 classroom wing. The district is significant for illustrating Quaker views on education, including a guarded, co-educational schooling kept within the Society of Friends, and for its link to the Conservative branch of Ohio Quakers. Of 25 resources, 15 contribute to the district's character, and the school, meetinghouse and farms remain in use.