Blackbird School (District No. 69)

Delaware’s Public School Law of 1829 brought free public education to the state and divided it into many small districts overseen by county superintendents. Blackbird District No. 60 first appeared in the record of an Annual Meeting on October 3, 1835. Its first schoolhouse was a log building measuring 18 x 20 feet and belonging to William Weldon, who was later appointed Secretary and Clerk of the district in 1835. When the district was split circa 1860, a new schoolhouse was built. About 1892, a third school for Blackbird District No. 69 was built east of King's Road near the village of Blackbird. To accommodate the expansion of Route 13, the school was later moved to property owned by William Fortner on the west side of King's Road, a transfer facilitated in part through a 1932 deed between Fortner and the State Board of Education. After the move, a rear coal shed, a front vestibule, and steps were added. When Blackbird School No. 69 closed in 1945, its students were sent to nearby Townsend, and the former school building and grounds were donated by Mrs. William Fortner to the Blackbird Community Center, organized in 1950.

Delaware · United States