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Brentwood’s Second Schoolhouse

Page history last edited by Mary Ann Koferl 15 years ago

Education has been valued in Brentwood from Modern Times to the present. In Modern Times adults learned useful trades at Josiah Warren’s Mechanical College. The children in the community met in homes for classes until they had a school. Charles Codman donated land to build a schoolhouse. In 1857 Brentwood School District number 12 was established. The first schoolhouse, a one room octagon building, was built on the site of Third Avenue and Fourth Street. This schoolhouse was in use for 50 years. It was then sold and moved to another location where it became a private residence

 

In 1906 Brentwood residents voted to build a new school at the cost of $5,000. The cornerstone was laid in 1906. The second schoolhouse was built, on the original schoolhouse site of Third Avenue and Fourth Street, to accommodate the growing school population. It is this historic landmark that is being featured in today’s article.

 

The second schoolhouse originally was a two room cinder block building with an outside staircase. Union Free School District No. 12 was engraved over the archway entrance where it can still be seen today. There have been several physical changes to this school building. In 1932, twenty five years after the initial building was erected, a two-room addition, was added to the second schoolhouse. The cost of this addition was $14,000.

At this time the first principal, Leigh P. Stuart was hired and there were four teachers and seventy-six students in the school.

 

In 1940 the Village School was built on Third Avenue & First Street. Classes moved to this new school leaving the Second Schoolhouse building empty. Two new tenants settled into the schoolhouse that same year. The school district administration offices and the Brentwood Public Library shared this landmark schoolhouse.

 

On August 14, 1940 the Brentwood Public Library moved from a small store building on 1st Ave. to the southwest room of the old school building. By November of 1951 the library expanded and moved into the back two rooms of the School Administration Annex. In 1953 the library outgrew its quarters and moved out of the schoolhouse into a rented building on the southeast corner of Third Avenue & Fourth Street.

 

The School Administration offices continued to operate in the second schoolhouse until several elementary schools were built and occupied. In 1985 the school administration offices moved from the Second Schoolhouse to the Village School, now the Felicio Administration Center, where they still are today.

 

In 1989 the original two rooms of the second schoolhouse were annexed to the present Brentwood Public Library Building. The schoolhouse portion of the library became a repository for historical materials.

 

In 2005 the Second Schoolhouse became the Brentwood Local History Department of the library. This department is staffed with three librarians who are developing the collection and offering history related programs. It is now 2006 and the historic Second Schoolhouse landmark is proudly celebrating its 100th anniversary.

A. Bennett  May 2006

 

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