Avon Historical Society Presents 'The One Room School House in Avon'

From Avon Historical Society: The Avon Historical Society Board of Trustees invites the public to their 43rd Annual Meeting with a special presentation on “The One Room School House in Avon” by Mr. Michael Day, retired elementary school principal and curator of the one room school house of the Barkhamsted Historical Society, on Monday, April 24, 2017 immediately following the meeting. The event is being co-sponsored and held at the Avon Senior Community Center, 635 West Avon Road, Avon.

This the first time in recent memory that the Society is opening their Annual Meeting to the general public. The Society and Senior Center will provide coffee and dessert beginning at 6:30pm. A brief annual meeting and election of Board of Trustees for the coming year will take place at 7:00pm followed by Mr. Day’s presentation at approximately 7:30pm. Families are encourage to attend, especially school age children, who will learn what a typical school day was for children of the 19th century in Avon. Using first hand accounts and books in the archives of the Society kept at the 1865 Pine Grove School House, Mr. Day will take about the importance of the school in the society, who the teachers were, how the curriculum was established, what the conditions were for learning in the 19th century and more!

According to Day, “At the time of the Civil War there were over 1,800 one room schools in Connecticut; there were seven schools here in Avon. Today most of the old school buildings have disappeared and people have forgotten how important they were in shaping American culture. Avon is fortunate in having saved two of the old schoolhouses: Schoolhouse #3 in the center of town, and the Pine Grove School on West Avon Road. On April 24th I hope to answer many of the questions that people have about how these primitive schools operated and why it is so important that we preserve them. I plan to talk about class size; the curriculum; the teachers and the day-to-day operations of the schoolhouse, including, of course, the use of the famous “hickory stick.”

Most recently Mr. Day has been reviewing the over 100 books on display and in storage at the 1865 Pine Grove School House to determine what is available to keep on display at the school house and what needs to be archived. He and longtime volunteer, Jeannie Parker, have been sifting through each and finding some curious and interesting books which are a snapshot of local history. Mr. Day will share his findings at the Annual Meeting also.

The Avon Historical Society maintains two school house buildings for the Town of Avon. The 1865 Pine Grove School House at 3 Harris Road is open to the public from 2:00-4:00pm on Sundays from June through September. It is set up as a school house of 1900 with desks, books, maps, slates, etc. The 1823 School House No. 3, located at 8 East Main Street (Route 44), is the Society’s main headquarters and used for archival storage and staging for rotating exhibits at the Avon Library. As it is fast approaching a major milestone, the Town of Avon has applied to the 1772 Foundation of the CT Trust for Historic Preservation for a matching grant to have the windows of School House No. 3 repaired and restored. If granted, the work will begin this summer. Once that project is completed the exterior of the property needs to be hand scraped and painted, including painting of the interior with exhibits refreshed and updated. The Town and Society are creating a maintenance plan for the building in order to focus on having it ready to show in 2023 on its 200th anniversary.

These are only two remaining one room school houses in Avon, most now are private residences. At one time there were seven school houses in use until 1949 when the Town of Avon closed each and consolidated the students in to new schools.

For more information about the April 24th event, please leave a message at: 860-678-7621.

Photo, image courtesy of Avon Historical Society