DANVILLE'S LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSES

MARCH 28, 2000

Among the historic resources that dot Danville's landscape are the two one-room Little Red Schoolhouses on Main Street.

Danville's Middle district Schoolhouse, across the street from the Center Cemetery on Route 111A, was built in 1834. It was originally furnished with double pine desks with bench seats. The interior was well lighted by seven windows. A fireplace on the outside heated it until the fireplace was replaced with a potbellied stove. The school once had an attached woodshed and an outside commode called a privy. The first teacher in the school in 1834 was Miss Levinia Sanborn, and the last, in 1901, was Miss Mabelle Warner. Owned by the Town, the building has been restored twice, once by vote of the town in approximately 1940 and again by the Danville Grange as a community project in 1967. The building has been painted in the classic schoolhouse red with green shutters and the town continues to proudly maintain this historic building as a memorial to the town's heritage.

The Old Red Schoolhouse at 613 Main Street in North Danville was first built in 1780. The original building burned in 1834 and was replaced with the existing building in 1835. During a given year there were as many as eighty pupils from both North and South Danville registered at this one-room schoolhouse. The double pine desks that are in the building today are the same ones that were used by many generations of Danville students. The last term of school in this building was in the fall of 18941895. Also painted in the classic red and green colors, this building is owned and maintained by the North Danville Village Improvement Society.

When schools such as these were in use, it was customary for children not to stay in school all year because many were needed to help with the farm chores at home. There was more time for schooling in the cooler months but the weather was a great challenge. At times it was not very pleasant as country children and their teachers faced icy winds, storms and dipping temperatures on their way to school. Children would go barefoot during the warm months and usually had only one pair of shoes. During the winter they would don their shoes and set out on foot over the trails, fields and dirt roads to get to school. Sometimes a sled would help with the wintry commute. The next challenge after arriving at school was to keep warm. Wood or coal stoves heated one-room school buildings. One of the teacher's duties on an icy winter day would be to bring the inside temperature above freezing. Even then children near the stove were too hot, while others some distance away were too cold. When the temperature dipped below zero, ink in the inkbottles would freeze and take hours to thaw!

The teacher was in charge of whatever was needed in the one-room schoolhouse. Her only helpers were the pupils themselves. Few of these schools were located near wells or natural springs and the teacher and pupils brought water to school each day. Some students were fortunate to have a wooden or metal lunch bucket and brought lunches of bread with meat or jelly, a homemade cookie or an apple or a boiled potato. Those without buckets sustained themselves with a hard-boiled egg, an apple or whatever else could be stuffed into a pocket.

Though it may seem that life in the one-room schoolhouse was difficult, the school children were like one big family. Older children would help with the younger ones. Everyone helped the teacher with the chores. Since classes were small and everyone was in the same room, children had the advantage of learning from all the grades, regardless of age. Despite the rudimentary surroundings, learning was comprehensive and daily instruction for all grades included Arithmetic, Reading, Spelling, Geography and English. Other courses included History, Physiology and Health. Penmanship was practiced constantly. How many of us today admire the elegant and careful penmanship that was an art form in those times!

Over the centuries buildings such as these have served our society well. Some of our country's greatest leaders were students in the one-room schoolhouses. Though their doors are now closed, one-room schoolhouses such as those found in Danville continue to teach us about education long ago.