The Akron Plan was developed in response to changing Sunday-school practices. In the first part of the 19th century, the general tendency was for all pupils to learn the same lesson together in one large room. Beginning in about 1860, however, churches began implementing a new approach. All pupils learned the same lesson; but they were separated into grades, allowing each instructor to teach the lesson in a manner suitable for the age and level of development of their pupils. This practice was taken up by increasing numbers of churches; in 1872, a national convention adopted the Uniform Lesson Plan, implementing the practice nationwide. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

The grades were not kept separate for the entire duration of the session. The class began with devotional exercises, led by the superintendent and involving the entire body of pupils. After this, the grades were taught separately. At the end of the session, the superintendent led, and the whole body participated in, a five-minute review of the lesson followed by closing exercises. ^[4] This created a challenge for ecclesiastical architects: the Sunday-school building had to be designed in such a way that the pupils could quickly and efficiently be separated into various grades, and brought together for all-school activities. ^[5]

One of those who addressed the design problem was Lewis Miller. A wealthy inventor and industrialist, Miller supervised a Sunday school in Canton, Ohio, and later one in Akron. ^{[6] [7]} When the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Akron decided to construct a new building, Miller worked with several architects to plan the Sunday-school wing. He devised a plan in which wedge-shaped classrooms were separated by partitions radiating from the direction of a central superintendent's platform. Doors on the platform-facing side of each classroom could be closed during grade-separated lessons, or opened to allow all pupils to see and hear the superintendent during school-wide exercises. The new church, following these plans, was constructed in 1866–67. ^{[8] [9] [10]}

The so-called Akron Plan was adopted by Protestant churches throughout the United States and the world. ^{[8] [11] [12]} Many of these churches modified the design with the addition of a movable partition between the sanctuary and the Sunday-school spaces, allowing the Sunday-school classes and the main body of congregants to be separated or united. ^[13]

The Akron Plan's popularity declined after 1908, ^[14] when an international Sunday-school convention approved the development of completely graded lesson plans. Pupils were to be kept in separate classes for the entire session; the school-wide exercises led by the superintendent were eliminated. This did away with the chief advantage of the Akron Plan, whose awkwardly shaped, imperfectly soundproofed, and often poorly lighted rooms were poorly suited for any other purpose. To create more useful spaces, many Akron Plan interiors were remodelled; by the beginning of the 21st century, few intact Akron Plan interiors remained. ^{[1] [15] [16] [17]}

Sunday schools, 1780–1872

The genesis of the Sunday school occurred in 1780 in Gloucester, England, when philanthropist Robert Raikes arranged for the teaching of a measure of literacy and religious instruction to slum children, most of whom worked six days a week and had Sunday as their only free day. The experiment proved successful and was taken up elsewhere; by Raikes's death in 1811, Sunday-school pupils numbered about a quarter-million, throughout the British Isles and in the United States. ^[18]

With the passage of time, the exclusive focus on lower-class children was abandoned. The expansion to upper classes was pioneered by, among others, noted divine Lyman Beecher, who in about 1830 sent his children to Sunday school, and encouraged his neighbors to do likewise. Instruction in reading and writing was also dropped, and the schools devoted themselves to religious education. ^[19]

Through the first quarter of the 19th century, religious instruction in Sunday schools took the form of rote memorization of extensive passages from the Bible or the catechism; pupils might be tasked with memorizing as many as 300 verses a week. In about 1826, this began to give way to a new system, the "selected lesson" or "limited lesson", whereunder all pupils were given the same relatively short excerpt from Scripture to memorize, and were taught the passage's meaning and significance. ^{[20] [21]}

Until about 1860, Sunday school was usually conducted in a single large room, with pupils of all ages learning the same lesson. This allowed all members of a family to discuss the lesson at home after church; but it was difficult to devise lessons that would be useful to all members of such a heterogeneous set of pupils, and the mix of ages tended to give rise to disciplinary problems. In response to this, and in keeping with the practice in the public schools, Sunday schools began to be divided into grades. In 1872, a national convention adopted the Uniform Lesson Plan, whereunder all students would study the same Scriptural passage but would be taught in a manner appropriate to their age. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Uniform Lessons and Akron Plan

Under the Uniform Lesson Plan, the grades were not to be kept separate for the entire duration of the session. Rather, the class was to begin with devotional exercises, led by the superintendent and involving the entire body of pupils. After this, the grades were to be taught separately. The session would end with the superintendent's leading, and the whole body's participating in, a five-minute review of the lesson followed by closing exercises. ^[4]

This created a challenge for ecclesiastical architects. The Sunday-school building had to be designed in such a way that the pupils could quickly and efficiently be separated according to their various grades, and brought together for whole-school activities. ^[5] John H. Vincent, an authority on Sunday schools in the Methodist Episcopal Church and later a bishop, ^[22] described the architectural requirements: "Provide for togetherness and separateness; have a room in which the whole school can be brought together in a moment for simultaneous exercises, and with a minimum of movement can be divided into classes for uninterrupted classwork". ^[4]

One of those who addressed the design problem was Lewis Miller. A wealthy inventor and industrialist, Miller supervised a Sunday school in Canton, Ohio, and later one in Akron. There, he employed the graded system and experienced the problems that arose from unsuitable building designs. ^{[6] [7]}

When the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Akron decided to construct a new building, Miller interested himself in the building's design. Working with architects Walter Blythe of Cleveland and Jacob Snyder of Akron, he devised a plan in which wedge-shaped classrooms were separated by partitions radiating from the direction of a central superintendent's platform. Doors on the platform-facing side of each classroom could be closed during grade-separated lessons, or opened to allow all pupils to see and hear the superintendent during school-wide exercises. The new church, following these plans, was constructed in 1866–67. ^{[8] [9] [10]}

The so-called Akron Plan was adopted by Protestant churches throughout the United States and the world, particularly after 1872, when the Fifth National Sunday-School Convention adopted the Uniform Lesson Plan. ^{[23] [11]} A 1911 American publication stated that "This plan for the Sunday-school building has been almost universally adopted in this country", ^[12] and a 1914 publication stated that of the churches built in the preceding fifty years, three-quarters of those that made provisions for Sunday schools had used some version of the Akron Plan. ^[8] Many of these churches modified the design with the addition of a movable partition between the sanctuary and the Sunday-schol spaces, allowing the Sunday-school classes and the main body of congregants to be separated or united. ^[13]

Decline

The Akron Plan was not without its failings. The divisions between the classrooms impeded worship by the whole body of pupils, compared to how they might have acted in a single large space. The wedge-shaped rooms were often poorly lighted and ventilated. Flimsy partitions and doors did not suffice to exclude distracting noises. ^{[11] [24]}

In the early 20th century, the Uniform Lesson Plan began to fall out of favor. The requirement that the same Scriptural passages be taught to pupils of all grades was seen as unduly constraining: passages that adults could profitably study might be meaningless to small children. Moreover, the exclusive focus on Biblical passages made it difficult to study such things as church history and organization, missions, and latter-day issues such as temperance. ^{[1] [25]}

In 1908, ^[14] a convention of the International Sunday School Association approved the development of completely graded lesson plans. These were adopted by 35,000 Sunday schools during the following five years. With the different grades no longer studying the same topic during a given week, there was no longer a place for the superintendent's review of the whole school. School-wide assemblies became infrequent, eliminating the need for a means of quickly bringing the whole body of pupils together. ^{[1] [15]}

The change in Sunday-school organization did away with the advantages of the Akron Plan. The oddly shaped rooms could not readily be turned to other purposes without extensive modification. While Akron Plan churches continued to be built into the 1920s and 1930s, many existing churches were remodelled to create more useful interior spaces. By the beginning of the 21st century, few intact Akron Plan interiors remained. ^{[16] [17]}

Notes

References

• Chambers, Murphy & Burge, Restoration Architects, Ltd. (2003). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: First Congregational Church" (Akron, Ohio). Retrieved 2017-01-07.
• Cope, Henry Frederick (1911). The Evolution of the Sunday School. Boston: Pilgrim Press. Retrieved via Google Books, 2015-12-02.
• Evans, Herbert Francis (1914). "The Sunday-School Building and Its Equipment". The Biblical World, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 150–224. Retrieved via JSTOR, 2014-09-09.
• Evans, H. F. (1915). "Architecture of Sunday Schools" in The Encyclopedia of Sunday Schools and Religious Education, ed. by John T. McFarland and Benjamin S. Winchester, pp. 28–55. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons. Retrieved via Google Books, 2014-09-09.
• Hamill, H. M. (1905). "The Genesis of the International Sunday-school Lesson", in The Development of the Sunday-School, 1780–1905, ed. by W. N. Hartshorn, Rev. George R. Merrill, and Marion Lawrance. Boston: Fort Hill Press; published by Executive Committee of the International Sunday-School Association. Retrieved via Google Books, 2014-09-12.
• Lawrance, Marion (1911). Housing the Sunday School. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. Retrieved via Google Books, 2014-09-09.
• Merrill, George R. (1905). "Robert Raikes and the Eighteenth Century", in The Development of the Sunday-School, 1780–1905, ed. by W. N. Hartshorn, Rev. George R. Merrill, and Marion Lawrance. Boston: Fort Hill Press; published by Executive Committee of the International Sunday-School Association. Retrieved via Google Books, 2014-09-12.
• Meyer, Henry H. (1910). The Graded Sunday School in Principle and Practice. New York: Eaton & Mains. Retrieved via Google Books, 2015-12-02.
• Trumbull, Charles Gallaudet (1905). "The Nineteenth Century Sunday-school", in The Development of the Sunday-School, 1780–1905, ed. by W. N. Hartshorn, Rev. George R. Merrill, and Marion Lawrance. Boston: Fort Hill Press; published by Executive Committee of the International Sunday-School Association. Retrieved via Google Books, 2014-09-12.