The Historical Society of Easton would like to thank the Citizens for Easton for including us in their annual Farm Tour and also thank everyone who came by On August 10th to tour the Adams Schoolhouse. We hosted over seventy people, and hopefully, they went away knowing a few new facts about how the town educated their children a hundred and fifty years ago. Today, I thought it would be nice to present a photo history of the journey the Adams School House began in 1850 to where it is respectfully maintained and preserved by the Historical Society of Easton today.
The school was built around 1850 on the northeast corner of Sport Hill Road and Adams Rd. It was one of eight one-room school houses that were located within the Town of Easton. Easton had a total of thirteen school districts, five of which were shared districts with Weston, Fairfield, Redding, Fairfield, and Monroe. Each school was similar in size, but different districts accommodated different size classes based on the population of children residing within the district. Each district was based on topography and proximity to one another; children needed to be able to walk to school in the 19th century, so districts that encompassed more a couple of square miles would have simply been too difficult for five and six-year-olds to easily access.
Prior to the establishment of the Connecticut State Board of Education, rural schools generally accommodated all the children between the ages of five and twelve within each district in a one-room structure with a single educator teaching the entire class. Before the 1890’s, there were no individual grades; each student learned at his or her own pace, and once the teacher felt that student had learned as much as he or she could teach them, they were sent out into the world ready to work. Reading, writing, and understanding basic mathematics were the necessary skills that all students were taught. Those early schools seldom saw teachers who had been professionally trained prior to the State requiring the more structured curriculums that came after individual grades were established.
The Adams Schoolhouse was shuttered for good in 1931 when the original Samuel Staples Elementary School opened its doors on Morehouse Road. When Bridgeport Hydraulic Company president Samuel Senior offered to purchase and move the abandoned schoolhouse in the mid-1930’s, the town was more than happy to be rid of it. The building was loaded onto a trailer and hauled south on Sport Hill Road where it was set on a new foundation at Senior’s Tersana Farm to be used by Senior’s wife.
It remained on the Senior farm until after his death in the early 1960’s. When the new owners of the property, Mrs. and Mr. Irwin Friedman, had no need for the old schoolhouse, it was offered to the Town, which had no place to put it, nor any particular use for the building.
Faced with the possibly of seeing the structure razed, a group of concerned Easton residents, many of whom had attended the old school, got together to form the Historical Society of Easton in the summer of 1968. After several fundraising events brought in enough money, the new society leased a plot of land on Westport Road and made arrangements to have the old building moved there in July of 1969. In addition to donating the structure to the Society, the Friedman’s were generous enough to present it with a $750 check that went to help defray the $3,500 cost of the move and the building of a new foundation.
Once in place, additional fundraising efforts were made, and along with a team of volunteer craftsmen and trades people, the schoolhouse underwent a complete restoration over the next year or so. A townwide auction that was held at the Burroughs Barn on Church Road on July 26, 1969, raised most of the funds necessary to replace the aged roof and give the outside a fresh coat of paint.
The Historical Society of Easton has faithfully maintained the structure for over fifty years. For many years, the schoolhouse was a regular destination for field trips for students at Samuel Staples. The Society has occasionally opened the school to other organizations upon request over the ensuing years, but with the lack of running water, electricity, and ADA compliant accessibility (none of which existed in the 19th century), visits from other organizations has waned.
Today, the Adams Schoolhouse is still available for group visits upon request and the ability to coordinate Society personnel to conduct an informational tour. In addition, the Society makes every effort to have an annual open house on the second Saturday of every year in conjunction with the CFE Farm Tour. A special thanks goes out to fellow board member Peter Howard for helping me greet our visitors this year!
We hope you enjoy this photo album of the long and varied life of the Adams Schoolhouse.
.
