District School, Old Sturbridge Village (1810)
Old Sturbridge Village
1 Old Sturbridge Village Rd.
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Old Sturbridge Village is one of the largest living history museums in the nation, celebrating life in early New England from 1790 – 1840. Located just off the Massachusetts Turnpike and Routes I-84 and 20 in Sturbridge, Mass., OSV is open year-round, but days and hours vary seasonally. In the early nineteenth century, New England was one of the few places in the world where the great majority of children went to school. Most of them attended one-room district schools within walking distance of their homes. Towns were divided into several school districts, each with its own schoolhouse. Some village or wealthy farming districts had larger and better equipped schoolhouses. Here they learned the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, and sometimes went on to geography, history, and English composition. School was held for ten or twelve weeks in the winter months, usually beginning after Thanksgiving. For young children, whose work was not needed at home, there was also an eight week term in the summer. Some children went to school nearly every day it was in session; others attended only when their parents did not need them at home. The District Schoolhouse, circa 1810, is a one room schoolhouse originally from Candia, New Hampshire, that was relocated to Old Sturbridge Village in 1955.
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