Foot of Ten Elementary School was built in 1993. It replaced the smaller Allegheny #2 Elementary School, which is still located next door and currently houses the IU. Foot of Ten is one of three elementary schools in the Hollidaysburg Area School District. It is located in a rural setting on a tract of land that includes recreational facilities used for physical education and recess, as well as an environmental center. The school houses over 540 students in grades kindergarten through sixth grade. A professional staff of seventy strong help to develop knowledgeable, lifelong learners, who will be responsible, productive members of society.
In the middle 1800s, canal boats arrived in Hollidaysburg via the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal on their way to cities like Johnstown and Pittsburgh. There the canal traffic transferred to the Allegheny Portage Railroad. Locomotives transported the railroad cars from Hollidaysburg for a distance of about four miles to an inclined plane at the base of the Allegheny Mountains. A village grew up at the base of this inclined plane and became known as Foot of Ten.
This unique name came from the system of inclined planes and levels that were used to transport railroad cars up or down the mountains. Between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown there was a series of ten such inclines. This village sat at the bottom (or foot) of Plane Ten where workmen hooked rail cars to a rope or cable, and a stationary steam engine pulled them up to another level section of track. A locomotive along this short level stretch pulled the cars, and then once again they were connected to a stationary steam engine and pulled up Incline Plane Nine to the next level. This process was repeated until the cars arrived at the top of Plane Six, where the historic Lemon House still marks the summit of the railroad. From there, the rail cars descended down Planes Five through One before arriving in Johnstown, the western terminus of the Allegheny Portage Railroad.