John_McMillan's_Log_School
John McMillan's Log School
Log building in Pennsylvania, United States
John McMillan's Log School is a landmark[1] log building in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania that was the site of John McMillan's frontier Latin school during the 1780s.[2] It is a symbol of Canonsburg and Canonsburg's educational tradition.[2] In 1930, The Pittsburgh Press said that the building was "viewed by the pioneers with even more reverence than Pittsburgh now view the towering Cathedral of Learning in Oakland."[3] It is one of the oldest buildings in Western Pennsylvania.[4] It is the "oldest educational building west of the Allegheny Mountains."[1]
The school grew into Canonsburg Academy, which eventually developed into Washington & Jefferson College.[5]
The building is rectangular in shape and is 14 feet long.[4]
It was originally located in a field a mile south of Canonsburg.[2] McMillan based the school on the William Tennent's Log College in eastern Pennsylvania.[4] The building doubled as a stable when McMillan was not teaching classes.[4] After only a year, the original building was destroyed by fire and rebuilt.[4] The curriculum was a generalized classical education, including mathematics, grammar, rhetoric, natural history, Greek, and Latin, with a focus on preparing young men for Presbyterian ministry.[4] It was moved to its current location in front of the Canonsburg Middle School, which stood of the location of Jefferson College, in 1895.[2]
After McMillan died in 1833, his family continued to operate his farm and used the building as a workshop space.[6] Jefferson College students often made the pilgrimage from Canonsburg to the building.[6] In 1894, the building was offered to Jefferson Academy, which then occupied the former Jefferson College campus.[6] Jefferson Academy closed in 1910 and the maintenance of the building fell to Phi Gamma Delta and Phi Kappa Psi, two fraternities that were founded at Jefferson College.[6] In 1930, the building was adopted by the national officers of Phi Gamma Delta.[3] The original preservation plan called for the college to be protected by a steel and glass canopy.[3] The fraternity agreed to fund the restoration of the building.[3]
In 1940, Phi Gamma Delta attempted to move the building to the campus of Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, a plan that caused an uproar from the Canonsburg community.[6] In response, Phi Gamma Delta let the town retake control over the building, which was then placed under the care of a "Log Cabin Association."[6]
In 2004, the Jefferson College Historical Society's Log Cabin Preservation Project Committee decided to restore the building.[6] The renovation project was jointly funded by Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Kappa Psi, and the historical society's Log Cabin Fund.[6][7]
