History & local legend
A small stone schoolhouse once stood beside the stream in Dark Hollow, Bucks County. William J. Buck recorded a former pupil’s story about its harsh schoolmaster in his 1887 collection, Local Sketches and Legends.
The old man remembered a day when the teacher wore out the switch he used to punish his pupils. He left the room to cut a stronger one. As soon as he was out of sight, the children grabbed their hats, books and baskets and fled. They refused to return.
Months later, the former pupil peered through a hole in a shutter of the deserted school. He said he saw the teacher’s ghost seated at the desk, switch in hand, still waiting for the class. When Buck returned to Dark Hollow in 1881, the schoolhouse itself had been gone for about eighteen years.
Sources
- William J. Buck, Local Sketches and Legends, 1887. Dark Hollow, pp. 124–125, 130, former pupil’s account and Buck’s return
- George MacReynolds, Place Names in Bucks County Pennsylvania, identifies the ford at the bend of the Neshaminy
- Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, Dark Hollow Road Bridge over the Neshaminy
- Buckingham Township, route connecting to the old bridgeUnavailable ·
