John McMillan’s Log School is possibly the oldest school building west of the Allegheny Mountains.
The log school is shown below in its deteriorating condition as it sat on its original site on the McMillan Farm in N.Strabane Township around 1894.
When John McMillan's descendants offered the old building to the trustees of the Jefferson Academy, they readily accepted.
The logs were marked, the cabin dismantled, and several wagon-loads of logs were hauled to Canonsburg.
The following year the building was reassembled behind the large brick college buildings known as the Jefferson Academy.
This photograph shows the small log cabin two years after being moved and re-assembled behind the Jefferson Academy buildings which later became Canonsburg High SchoolOver the years the log cabin had been moved several times and in the early 1900s it was put on a stone foundation.
In 1931 the school district needed the site for an auditorium and the log cabin was once again moved, this time from the back of the property to its current prominent site in front of the academy building that was later known as Canonsburg High School's Chapel Gym.
Shown here in its present location, in the front of the Chapel Gym.
The historic 1833 Jefferson Academy building (Chapel Gym) seen in the background was demolished in 1965...
