Strawberry School

Gila County, Arizona

Year Built: 1885

Year Closed: 1916

NRHP: 05000422 (added on May 10, 2005)

Reputed to be the “oldest standing schoolhouse in Arizona”, the Strawberry School was built from pine logs in 1885. It is, in fact, not the oldest standing school; that honor is reserved for the Arivaca Schoolhouse, built 6 years earlier in 1879. The 30’ x 20’ school has a sandstone foundation, log walls, shake roofing and a medium-pitched gable roof. The square-hewn pine logs of the walls are interlocked with a half-dovetail joinery. Chinking in between the logs was done using slender wooden laths with a mortar made of clay-like soil and glass. Both the west and the east side have windows and the entryway door was on the south side of the building. Originally, the ceiling was a cloth tarp before being replaced with a wooden ceiling early in the building’s history.