ADAMS TWP — The dilapidated building being erected by an Amish crew at the Community Park is actually a gem of township history that will illustrate education in years past.

One of two one-room schoolhouses remaining in the township was disassembled, piled onto a Vogel Disposal flatbed, and moved to the community park in late August.

The township supervisors voted in July to pay the roughly $13,000 to excavate and pour a concrete foundation for the schoolhouse, which is beside the park's Rotary Shelter.

According to the Mars School District's website, the school on Forsythe Road was one of eight one-room schoolhouses built in the township after 1836.

Project supervisor Bob Bicker, who is a carpenter for Vogel Disposal and its owner, Ed Vogel, said a bucket truck was used to remove the school's bell tower at its former location on the Barkus property on Forsythe Road.

The roofing and rafters were removed and discarded before the gable ends were removed on both sides. The building was then cut into 26-foot and 36-foot sections, and the porch was removed so the crew could use it as a pattern in building a new porch, Bicker said.

All of that was loaded onto the flatbed and hauled to the park.

Jonathan Mast of Mast Construction in New Wilmington, Mercer County, led a five-man Amish crew who dismantled the building and rebuilt it at the park.

On Monday, the crew reset all four walls on the new foundation, replaced a corner of the building that suffered water damage, and prepared to set the new roof trusses that were built specially for the school by the Mast crew.

The crew will get the schoolhouse under roof, which will be red metal, and ensure it is weather tight before winter, Bicker said.

He said the bell tower, the new porch and new windows would likely be installed next year.

Bicker said he has enjoyed the historical project.

“It was interesting to see how they put things together back then,” he said.

For example, Bicker found that mortise and tenon construction was used to build the school. He explained that the stud ends were cut into square “tenons,” which were fitted into a matching square “mortise.”

He said the method is no longer used because it is time consuming and because modern construction crews use power drills to screw wood together.

Bicker said the work crew was able to salvage and reinstall one of the mortise and tenon corners.

He said while he has overseen and worked on many construction projects, this is his first one-room schoolhouse.

“It's been something different,” Bicker said.

He said the schoolhouse was in better shape than it appeared when he first surveyed it on the Barkus property.

“It was surprisingly well-preserved, except for the water damage,” Bicker said.

John Watson, president of the Mars History and Landmark Society, said the society members will sand and stain the school's original door and refurbish the transom at the shop on Railroad Street in Mars.

“That'll be a good winter project for us,” Watson said.

The school's six windows will be reproduced according to the memory of Vogel, who attended first through sixth grades at the school in the 1940s and 1950s.

“There are a few companies that reproduce older-style windows so we are going to pursue that,” Watson said.

He said one window still has part of the unusual mutton pattern used in the original windows, which have all been broken out over the years. That existing window will be used to design the sashes for the new windows.

Several pieces of the school's original tongue-and-groove wood flooring survive at the society's headquarters, and a decision has not yet been made on whether a new wood floor will be installed or some of the existing pieces will be incorporated.

“We are trying to make it as maintenance-free as possible for down the road,” Watson said.

He said the project has been the most exciting one taken on by the society since 2000, when the former Mars Train Station was moved to its current location on Railroad Street and refurbished.

“I'm thrilled and amazed,” Watson said of the schoolhouse project. “I didn't think it was going to happen,”

He said an early problem for the schoolhouse project, which began being discussed in 2003, was a new location. The park was in its infancy then, and no room existed near the train station for the school.

But then the park property became an option, which led to the building finally being saved.

“I had pretty much given up hope,” said Watson, “but sometimes if you wait, things fall into place.”