It’s not every day one gets the opportunity to invoke The Sound of Music in the world of home sales. But Phoenixville’s Old Pickering Schoolhouse, built in 1840, has just been put on the market, and its combination of residential and schoolhouse elements is a perfect fit for a governess arriving to wrangle a posse of unruly children–with the aid of a bell in a belfry and rows of books in amazing built-in bookshelves that go up to the ceiling.
Should potential buyers want more dour literary inspiration, think Jane Eyre. The stone wall around the property should provide enough seclusion for a sad governess who paces around gardens, past brooks and ponds, and sits beneath trees. It can’t get too sad, though, because the 2.5 acres here look defiantly lovely.
