Overview
This handsome half-timbered house built in 1706 is very similar to Maisch House, which was built in 1700.
Originally there were two classrooms and apartments for the teachers in the schoolhouse. The main teacher, called the preceptor, taught the older pupils attending elementary school and grammar school, which prepared pupils to study. The second teacher, called the collaborator, taught the younger children. If the class was very large, a helper was also employed. In 1796 there was a teacher for the girls’ school and since 1801 there was a teacher for the boys’ school.
Using a school in Birkach near Stuttgart as a model, Melchinger established an “Industrial School” in 1801, which still existed in 1862. In 1802 Melchinger published his work “The Industrial School in Nagold in Württemberg”, which explained the necessity of having this type of school. Following the famine of 1816/17, Queen Katharina supported industrial schools as a measure in fighting poverty.
Despite the enlargement of the school building in 1807, it was soon again too small. After the initiation of the new school at Burgplatz in 1828, lessons for all pupils of the elementary and the grammar schools took place there. The Old School House has been owned privately since 1828.
