The property for the Owl Hill School was deeded to the Warwick Township School District on July 7, 1899. Isaiah Buch and his wife Maria received $200 for the property and it contained 80 perches or a half acre. The deed was recorded on November 16, 1900 in Deed Book G, Volume 16, page 500.
By 1926 it was no longer needed for school purposes and the School District sold it at public sale for $455 to Walter S. Behmer. It was noted in the deed that it was the Owl Hill School Premises and contained 80 perches. The deed was written November 24, 1926 and recorded November 26, 1926 in Deed Book H, Volume 28, page 87. In subsequent deeds the building was described as a one story frame building that was 30 feet by 50 feet. In 1949 the building and 80 perches of land was bought by the Hess Christian Day School for $1. Also in that year Hess Christian Day School bought an acre of land without improvements for $1.
From the Lititz Record Express on Thursday, June 3, 1949 Owl Hill School To Be Reopened “Scheduled to be ready for occupancy by the September school term the old Owl Hill School will be remodeled into a two room Mennonite school.
Aaron W. Martin, Ephrata RD3, installed a modern water supply system uncovered with his scientific equipment in a well 119 feet deep.
Successively used as a Blacksmith Shop and an implement storage place the Owl Hill School will again be the scene of children learning the three “Rs” after a lapse of a quarter of a century.”
Eventually the building and property were sold to Daniel and Mary Ann Garrett and the Owl Hill Learning Center had its beginnings. It covers day care and Pre Kindergarten and Kindergarten instruction for ages 12 months to 11 years of age.
The property is located on the south side of Owl Hill Road at Brevity Lane.
In February 1979 the above appeared in the Lancaster Intelligence Journal announcing that the old tworoom schoolhouse along Owl Hill Road, which dated at least to the early 1920’s, had been given a new lease on life as the Country School Learning Center. It is known from the deeds that the property was in the School District’s hands in July of 1899 and was sold at public sale in November 1926. But what is not generally known is that a young girl was told by her father how he planted the tree in the picture with a bag of bones placed in the hole before setting the tree. This was “to make the tree grow strong”. The young girl was my mother, Eva Behmer, and John Behmer was her father. They lived in the house across the road.
