The Pink Schoolhouse, Jefferson County Historical Society Paddock Mansion, Watertown, NY

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The Pink Schoolhouse

Jefferson County Historical Society Paddock Mansion

228 Washington St.

Watertown, NY

The Pink Schoolhouse is located at 228 Washington Street in Watertown, NY, on the site of the Paddock Mansion, behind the Victorian Garden. It is a fully restored one-room schoolhouse, circa 1895. Inside there are antique desks, school books, historic maps, and case displays which trace the development of education in northern New York. It is operated as a museum by the Jefferson County Historical Society.

Carson School, Carson, NM

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Carson School

NM Hgwy. 96

Carson, New Mexico

The Carson School, on New Mexico State Road 96 in Carson, New Mexico, was built in 1920. It was built as a one-room schoolhouse, and was later divided into two classrooms. William Shupe moved his family to Carson in 1912, and together with others built an irrigation ditch, the Arroyo Aguaje de la Petaca, which enabled irrigation of the Carson area. The Shupe family grew pinto beans on 212 acres. Troy Shupe, one of his sons, was contracted to build the schoolhouse, and Verde Shupe, another son, hauled water, stone and lumber used in the structure.

     A stonemason, Mr. Willis, shaped the native basalt rock quarried from nearby.   The school is the only surviving one of several works by Mr. Willis in the area.  About 40 students attended the school at its peak, when the Carson community had a population of about 150.  The schoolhouse also served for Mormon church services, and occasionally for funerals. After 1932, when the education was consolidated away, the building was used for community activities such as dances, potluck dinners, and country fairs.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

South Branch School, Branchburg Woman’s Club Branchburg, NJ

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South Branch School, a.k.a. the Little Red Schoolhouse,

Branchburg Woman’s Club

2120 South Branch Road

Branchburg, NJ 08876.

Schoolhouses built prior to the twentieth century came in many shapes and sizes in New Jersey. Some were square, others rectangular, while a few for a short period were octagonal. In 1848, Henry Barnard published School Architecture, which offered designs and ideas for model schoolhouses. If readers followed his advice, schools would be built with rectangular plans on raised foundations, the gable end would serve as the front, the longer side walls would feature multiple double-sash windows, and the classrooms would offer high ceilings. Up until shortly after the Civil War, their style and manner of construction mirrored churches and meetinghouses. Painted red and set back from the road featuring a belvidere, the South Branch Schoolhouse in Branchburg, Somerset County, New Jersey, fits the description of what Barnard recommended, but with an architecturally vernacular twist.

     The South Branch Schoolhouse was built circa 1874. It is a one-room Italianate-style schoolhouse, which educated children in grades 1 through 8 from the surrounding areas of Branchburg and Hillsborough townships. The village of South Branch is primarily located at the intersection of Studdiford Drive and South Branch Road. In addition to the school house, it contains a number of homes and farmsteads. The village continues across the South Branch of the Raritan River into Hillsborough. Today, the area surrounding the schoolhouse remains largely rural and undeveloped. The school was the first in the area built expressly as a tuition-free public school following the New Jersey 1871 Free School Bill, which abolished the Rate-Bill. Under the old law’s provisions, the parents of children attending the district schools were taxed for any deficiency in revenue in the maintenance of the school.

     Architecturally, the building’s front door is on the gable end with flanking six-over-six double-sash windows on each side. The building features three six-over-six double-sash windows on its side walls and a small addition placed on the rear of the building in the twentieth century. Keeping with the Italianate style, the structure is heavily bracketed and the school’s belvidere, or bell tower, has a flat roof, rather than being a dome or pyramidal (hipped) roof. It is unusual to see schools built in the Italianate style. This vernacular anomaly makes the building even more unique but also may reflect how the community viewed education and took pride in the appearance of its schoolhouse.  The interior retains many of its original elements, including vertical beaded tongue-and-groove wainscoting on all four interior walls. The front wall of the classroom contains a pot-belly stove and chalkboards are located on three of the four walls.

     South Branch Schoolhouse was the last one-room school in use in Somerset County, closing in 1965. One year prior, in 1964, the school was restored by the Branchburg Township Tercentenary Committee. The building has been “adopted” by the Branchburg Woman’s Club, which meets at the school and has worked on a number of projects at the building, including the installation of a historically appropriate driveway lamp and planting of a memorial tree on the property. The group also opens the schoolhouse each year during Somerset County’s Weekend Journey through the Past in October. The school was listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places in 2005. In 2007, the Branchburg Township rebuilt the bell tower, which had been removed.

Wilmot Flat one-room schoolhouse, Wilmot Town Office and Historical Society History Room, Wilmot, NH

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Wilmot Flat one-room schoolhouse

Wilmot Town Office and Historical Society History Room

9 Kearsarge Valley Road

Wilmot, NH 03287

Formerly a one-room schoolhouse in Wilmot Flat, the 111-year-old white clapboarded Wilmot Town Hall now houses the Town Office and History Room. The Wilmot Town Hall was built in 1907, the 100th anniversary of the town’s incorporation, to replace an earlier building that was deemed too small. It cost $1,600, not including its vault, which is still used to hold historical records and legal documents. The school closed in 1968, and in 1976 it was turned into town offices.  The building is currently used for Town Meeting, voting, and other community events including vaudeville shows and Wilmot Historical Society meetings. It is rented out for various other functions including plays and shows, but since it has no insulation it is closed from November through May – except for Election Day and Town Meeting.

     The Town Hall and attached Schoolhouse/LIbrary have been added to the state’s register of historic places, along with an airplane hangar (the first aviation building on the list), churches, libraries and the Stone House Tavern in Chesterfield (built in 1831). The listing by the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources means the eight properties can now receive relief from some building codes and regulations, and are pre-qualified for many grant programs. A total of 350 structures are on the state’s register of historic places.

     The Parlin Field Hangar in Newport, constructed in 1929 as part of the town’s municipal airport. It’s made of pre-fabricated steel, and it was built in a fashion that rose to popularity during the early days of airplane travel. Built to fit 10 airplanes, it barely survived being scrapped during the Great Depression. The hangar is important for its ability to illustrate the early history of aviation in rural New Hampshire.  Other properties added to the register include Alexandria’s Town Hall (built in 1913), the George Gamble Library in Danbury, and the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Laconia.

Wilmot Center Schoolhouse 1854, Wilmot Public Library, Wilmot, NH

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Wilmot Center Schoolhouse 1854

Wilmot Public Library

11 North Wilmot Road

Wilmot, NH 03287

Driving through the quaint village of Wilmot Center in New Hampshire, one will see a little library building.  The building was constructed in 1854 not as a library, but as a schoolhouse! The vernacular Greek Revival school served as one of many district schoolhouses in the region, dispersed around small towns to be within walking distance of the sparsely developed parts of the state. With population growth in the 20th century and the proliferation of the personal automobile, these small regional schools became obsolete. Many of these buildings were converted to other civic uses or as personal residences, but most were demolished.

     The Wilmot Public Library located in the former schoolhouse in 1972 and is now connected to the town offices next door.  The Wilmot Library’s budget is primarily funded by annual appropriations from the Town and is augmented with donations and through fundraising efforts. The Library is an independent legal entity with its own Trustees and officers.  It is a community hub with a schedule of presentations and lectures on Thursdays and Saturdays, an informal art gallery that displays the work of local artists, two book clubs, a weekly play time for toddlers, and used books available with a donation to the library.

Center School House, Elizabeth Houser Museum, Canterbury, NH

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The Center School House

Elizabeth Houser Museum

Old Tilton Rd.

Canterbury, NH 03224.

The Center School was built about 1844-1845 by local mason Lyman Fellows at the age of 19. Fellows was a resident of Canterbury and lived in the center. While in his teens, he left town for Altoona, Pennsylvania to apprentice as a mason. There he met Max Gross and Henry Houser who both wished to learn the mason’s trade and serve as his apprentices. They all returned from Altoona to build the schoolhouse. Mr. Houser’s daughter, Elizabeth, later became one of the most beloved teachers at the Center School from 1926 to 1939.  This building was to replace the old school that was probably constructed of wood. The “Brick Schoolhouse” is a unique feature of Canterbury’s historic center and is one of the few buildings that survived the devastating Center Fire in 1943. It was here for one hundred years that the schoolchildren of the Center District #7 were taught, and where Mr. Fellows’ grandniece, Elizabeth Houser, taught in the building where she herself had been educated.

     For many years after Miss Houser’s death and the practice of one room schoolhouses was long antiquated, the people of Canterbury continued to educate their children in the small schools. However, one by one, as the number of children lessened and the old schoolhouses slowly either became beyond repair or burned, the children were brought to the nearest schoolhouse until only the Center, Cater, Uplands, and Kezar schools remained. The Center School remained open until 1956 when a new central school was built after many years of debate and the small schoolhouses closed.

     The Center School remained a landmark of Canterbury Center for many years, being used as a storage building for the old school supplies and desks, amongst other uses. At the formation of the Canterbury Historical Society, they were given use of the building by the community at the Town Meeting of 1970. The Center School may be the last remaining schoolhouse in town and the only one made of brick, but it is first in the hearts of those who have lovingly restored it.

     On the 1st day of November, 1971, the small brick Center School house that stands steadfast on the village green, under the auspices of the Canterbury Historical Society, was dedicated in memory of all teachers of Canterbury but especially the dedicated teacher who had both attended and taught school there- Miss Elizabeth Houser. It has since been known as the Elizabeth Houser Museum and, after serving as a school, a museum, and the home of the local historical society, today houses the Historical Society’s One Room Schoolhouse Program for the children at Canterbury Elementary School, as a living example of what education in a one-room schoolhouse was like in the early part of the 20th century

     Beginning in 2005, and following three years of renovations, cleanup, painting, planning, and collection of furnishings, the school was rededicated at a Grand Opening Celebration on November 18, 2007.  Now, the Center School hosts a re-living history program that could prove the envy of reenactments across the country. Because of the proximity of the town’s Canterbury Elementary School, the creativity of historical society members, and the flexibility and support of teachers, 125 students in five classes attend as mixed grades 1-5 for five days per school year. This is as close as it gets to the multi-age classroom experience of the one-room school of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Older children help out with the younger children while they experience the complexity of all grades, all ages and all levels under the care of one teacher.

     Yet another unique aspect of Canterbury programming is that they have currently chosen to play to the 1940’s WWII years, drawing on the first-hand knowledge and experience of locals to tell their stories to the young visitors. Students listen to schoolhouse tales of former students, Pledge Allegiance without “under God” as it was originally written, recite the Lord’s Prayer, sing patriotic songs, undertake proper penmanship, work on graded spelling and sentence construction, and play indoor and outdoor games for recess. For reading, scholars may be found enjoying a story from a popular book of the time, Singing Wheels.  Following a visit from the music teacher and lunch, students share drawings, and recite definitions and sentences from their seatwork. Throughout the day students experience the water crock, “chores,” older students helping younger, and the spirit of cooperation.

Caldwell One Room Schoolhouse, Beringer-Caldwell One-Room School Museum, Fredonia, PA

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Caldwell One Room Schoolhouse

Beringer-Caldwell One-Room School Museum

2159 Mercer Road

Fredonia, PA

The Caldwell One Room Schoolhouse is located on Route 58 between Mercer and Greenville north of Mercer and 3.2 miles northwest of Fredonia, PA.  Built in 1880 this historic one room schoolhouse in scenic Mercer County, is charming remnant of a simpler time. Visitors will be transported to the past when they visit this unique landmark.  The simple one-room, red brick, gable-roofed schoolhouse has a “hanging” chimney that pierces the ridgepole and is suspended near the ceiling of the room below. Bricks were made on the Ball farm nearby. The building has stone corner quoins and retains its original desks. There were 225 one-room schools in Mercer County between 1800 and 1900. The building was donated to the Mercer County Historical Society in 1962, and operates as a school museum during clement weather, with the preserved one-room school building, a teachers memorial garden, and various other attractions on the grounds.

Golconda Schoolhouse, Golconda, Nevada

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Golconda Schoolhouse

Morrison and East Fourth Sts.

Golconda, Nevada

The Golconda School, a historic building built in 1888, is located at junction of Morrison and East Fourth Streets in Golconda, Nevada. It was deemed significant documenting the history of education in Nevada. It’s also an unusually well-preserved 19th century one-story wood-frame vernacular school, designed by architect J.L. Donnel in a vernacular style.  It includes vernacular Second Empire style architectural elements.  The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.  It was deemed significant for association with the economic development of Golconda, for “documenting the history of education in Nevada,” and “as an unusually well-preserved 19th century wood-frame vernacular school.”

     The development of Golconda as an agricultural center dates from 1862, when the Lay brothers (Louis and Theophile) began to develop the Humboldt Canal. The canal was to irrigate lands below it and run mills on ores from Unionville and other places along the canal route. Although it was never finished, enough was completed to irrigate lands in the vicinity of Golconda. As a result, sheep and cattle businesses steadily developed.  Even before Golconda’s mines were discovered, its hot springs were a popular stopping place for travelers. Pioneers on their way to the California gold rush would camp at Golconda long enough to bathe in its waters which were purportedly known for their curative properties from the Missouri to the western slopes of the Sierras. In 1911 the town had four hotels, including one with one hundred rooms.

     Stylistically, the Golconda School can be seen as a simplified, vernacular variant of the Second Empire style, especially in its projecting entry and bell tower. The belfry is a relic of the time when the school and the church were closely associated in men’s minds. It served a useful purpose when reliable watches and clocks were uncommon, and telephones and gongs were unknown.  In the 19th century, the belfry, generally placed above the entrance, was a status symbol for many school districts. In some communities, special subscriptions were taken for a bell tower. Like church bells, these school bells served a variety of functions. Besides calling children to school, the bells were sounded in times of danger, such as mining accidents; and joy, such as at Christmas. Flagpoles often topped the belfry, and the pole atop the Golconda School steeple may have been used for this purpose.

     The belfry, while a source of pride in the 19th century, went out of fashion in the 20th and was not used after W.W. I.  The school building sits on a one and one-half acre, fenced but otherwise undeveloped site. There are seven historic trees standing north of the structure. Originally built as a school, the building is now used as a community center. The structure is in excellent condition, and has a very high degree of integrity. Although the population of Golconda today stands at fewer than 200, Golconda was once a bustling center for mining and agriculture, as well as a popular health resort. Mining commenced in the mineral belt surrounding Golconda in the 1860s. Prior to the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1868, a mill was running about three miles south of Golconda. Ores were being treated here and shipped by ox teams from Golconda to Sacramento.

Antioch School, Pauline, NE

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Antioch School

Near Crooked Creek in Adams County

Pauline, NE

Antioch School is a one-room red brick rural schoolhouse, constructed in 1902 and located on an Adams County hillside five miles southeast of the town of Pauline, NE, in Section 25, Little Blue Township. The one story vernacular building has a hipped roof with wooden shingles. The central doorway is located in a brick vestibule which has a tower topped with distinctive pyramidal roof. Storage sheds are symmetrical located on each side of the vestibule and are later additions (1930s). Three windows, evenly spaced ten feet apart, are located on both the north and south walls. A brick chimney is located on the north side of the building. The classroom area measures 22 feet in width and 33 feet in length. Original beaded wainscoting is intact on all interior walls.

     When the Antioch school was built in 1902 the Department of Public Instruction published a report written by William Fowler. The book described existing schoolhouses throughout the state and provided plans and recommendations for modern school buildings and grounds. As reported by Fowler, there were 6,773 schoolhouses (both urban and rural) in Nebraska in 1902. Adams County had a total of 89 schoolhouses. The majority of these buildings were constructed of wood–5,831,–while 464 were built of sod and 320 were brick. One of the typical schoolhouse forms, according to Fowler, was the two-by-three plan, characterized by “width two-thirds of the length, a single room without entry or vestibule, two or three widely separated windows in each side, and a door in the center or one end.” The Antioch school area almost perfectly conforms to the 2-by-3 plan.

     Two frame privies are located on the school grounds, one to the far north and the other to the far south as proscribed by School Laws of Nebraska for 1901. A storm cellar is also located on the grounds, directly west of the main entrance. In its prominent hillside setting, the Antioch school is an excellent example of a one room rural schoolhouse in its original setting.  In fact, today it is one of few examples of a rural one-room Nebraska schoolhouse that still sits exactly where it was built.  The Antioch School was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 28, 1988.

Pine Butte School, Bozeman, MT

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Pine Butte School

Norris Road

Bozeman, MT

Gallatin County, Montana’s first settled agricultural area, had many small communities upon statehood in 1889. State law allowed as few as four residents to petition for the financial assistance needed to establish a school district. Gallatin County especially seized this opportunity. At one time the county had 77 individual school districts. District #53 was established in 1895 and the one-room Pine Butte School built shortly thereafter for the Bozeman community. Lillie Railsback was the first teacher. She taught her 14 diverse students all subjects at different levels. The school year varied, but most teachers were itinerant, staying in one place for a term of three to four months, then moving to the next assignment. The “Smart School” was Pine Butte’s nickname because the land was purchased from Silas G. Smart. There were three Smart families, and over the years 15 Smart children attended the school. However, 17 Todd children also attended Pine Butte. Descendants of many former students still live in Gallatin County.

     A classic example of the western one-room schoolhouse, Pine Butte School was a simple gable-ended rectangle with three windows on each side. During the 1920s, the vestibule was added. Circa 1940, the west windows were removed because cross lighting was thought to cause eyestrain. Two of the west windows were added to the east side. Students managed without electricity until 1949, and the one remaining privy reveals a lack of plumbing even today. Pine Butte School served local children until 1955, when it closed because of low enrollment. Though as many as 30 children attended the school at once, attendance dropped as students from the nearby Dutch settlement went to a Christian school. The schoolhouse fell into disrepair, a victim to weather, vandalism and neglect. In 2000, the Pine Butte community acquired this local historic landmark for $1 from the school district. It later replaced the school’s roof with grant money.

     Since then, the school has been used as a community center.    The Pine Butte School Preservation Society has received a grant to restore the school to what it looked like in the 1920s.  Using MHF funds, donations, and a $2,500 grant from the Historic Preservation Board of Gallatin County, the Pine Butte School installed a new chimney cap to keep birds out, repaired and painted the interior walls of the schoolhouse, and finished exterior renovations on the school so students and community members could continue using the building. To complete the exterior restoration, the preservation society fixed the building’s structure. It also used pine planks from the time period as siding on the school.  In the last decade, the inside of the schoolhouse has been restored from memory. Preservationists combed antique stores for replicas of the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln portraits that were displayed in their school days. 

     The original desks and floor have been restored, and the library stocked with old books – “Huckleberry Finn,” “Tom Sawyer” and “Raggedy Ann.” Five former students, now in their 70s and 80s, intend to do the rest of the work themselves. With the installation of a new door – made to look like the original – the schoolhouse’s renovations were completed. The society still hopes to update the school’s heater and electrical supply in order to make it more functional. For a fee, Pine Butte can be rented for reunions and community events, though the plumbing facilities are vintage – an outhouse.  The local 4-H club that meets at the school has also helped with upkeep.  Pine Butte is one of just six remaining small schools in Gallatin County.