Willard Schools

Willard raised its children on lessons held in the log fort and the ward meetinghouse before a proper school tax arrived in 1870. The town — a place of Welsh stonemasons whose rock houses still line the streets — built a substantial brick schoolhouse in 1902, the one most residents would remember. It served until 1986, when a modern elementary replaced it. The old schoolhouse came down, but its 1964 west wing was spared and stands today as Willard's city hall, still keeping the town's business under a schoolhouse roof.

What the plaque says

WILLARD CENTRAL SCHOOL BELL When the Willard Central School was constructed in 1902, a bell tower with a large brass bell was installed on the roof toward the front of the building. The bell was rung fifteen minutes before school began and again at noon. Students vied for the privilege of pulling the bell cord. The ringing could be heard a mile away warning dawdling students to hurry. Although the bell tower was remodeled in 1911-12, the bell remained in place for thirty-seven years. In 1939, during a remodeling of the school, the bell was removed from the roof and mounted on a circular rock foundation immediately in front of the school. The bell no longer rang but served as a memorial to bygone days. The school was demolished in 1986 to make room for a new one. This monument, on the old playground, is constructed of rocks from the Fort Wall, which was built between 1852-55 and which surrounded the old town of Willard. Willow Creek Camp

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ogden Union Station — 13 mi
  A grand 1924 train depot turned museum complex
• Powder Mountain — 14 mi
  The largest ski resort in the United States by acreage — a famously uncrowded "PowMow" now remaking itself under Netflix's Reed Hastings.
• Wellsville Mountains — 16 mi
  The steepest mountains in North America for their height
• Snowbasin — 16 mi
  One of the country's oldest ski areas and a 2002 Olympic downhill venue — world-class terrain that somehow still skis uncrowded.

More markers nearby

• Original Willard Cemetary (sic) — 0.4 mi
• Three Mile Creek Site — 4.0 mi
• Peter Skene Ogden — 5.1 mi
• Bushnell Hospital / Intermountain Indian School — 6.2 mi