Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Schools

Goodwin Schoolhouse (1821)

Goodwin One Room Schoolhouse, East Hartford

The Goodwin Schoolhouse in East Hartford was built in 1821 by George Goodwin, Jr., a paper manufacturer. He built the school on his own property on Burnside Avenue and hired a teacher to teach his own children and those of his neighbors. A one room schoolhouse, the building was used as a school until 1855, when the students started attending town schools. The former school was moved to Martin Park in 1975 as a gift to the town from George Goodwin, grandson of the original builder. It is open as a museum operated by the Historical Society of East Hartford.

Second District School, Glastonbury (1906)

Built to replace an earlier schoolhouse on the same site, the Glastonbury’s former Second District School was constructed at 2252 Main Street in 1906. The two-story Colonial Revival hip-roofed building was used as a school until 1930. It served as Glstonbury’s Town Hall until 1960 and is now a law office.

Portersville Academy (1839)

Portersville Academy in Mystic was built in 1839 by the Town of Groton as its Fifth District School. Mystic was then called Portersville. It was constructed by Amos Clift (1808-1878), a local builder who also built many homes in Mystic Bridge. Originally located north of the Union Baptist Church on High Street, the building was moved in 1887 to its current address at 76 High Street, where it served as Mystic’s First Voting Hall until 1958. Portersville Academy was acquired and restored by the Mystic River Historical Society in 1975-1978. It is now open to the public as a museum.

Commodore Macdonough School (1924)

Commodore Thomas Macdonough was a Naval hero of the War of 1812 who defeated the British at the Battle of Lake Champlain in 1814. Earlier in the war he had overseen the construction of gunboats in Middletown and after the war made his home in the city. At 66 Spring Street in Middletown is the Commodore Macdonough Elementary School, which was built in 1924 and dedicated in 1925.

Parker Academy (1851)

As related in Volume 2 of William Cothren’s History of Ancient Woodbury (1872):

The south Academic Association, formed in 1851, ran “well for a season,” when the shares were bought up by Mr. Parmenns B. Hulse, who taught a private academy for some years, but having a flattering call to go to New York and engage in a book agency, he sold the building” to Mr. Frederick S. Parker, of New Haven, who removed it to the place formerly owned by Hon. Charles B. Phelps, deceased, and fitted it up for a first-class boarding-school, and at the same time enlarged and fitted up, at great expense, the Phelps mansion, for the purpose of accommodating the scholars of such a school. Rev. Alonzo N. Lewis, who had married a daughter of Mr. Phelps, opened here a boarding-school. But, having been invited to become rector of a church at Dexter, Maine, he closed his school, and rented the premises for a dwelling house. It is a very valuable property, and it is hoped that a successful boarding-school may be established there. We have a healthy location, a tidy village, an orderly community, and a most beautiful valley, with pleasant surroundings—a good place for such an institution.

According to Julia Minor Strong’s The Town and People: A Chronological Compilation of Contributed Writings from Present and Past Residents of the Town of Woodbury, Connecticut (1901)

The principals of Parker Academy, so far as can be ascertained, were as follows: Samuel Spooner, P. B. Hulse, Mr. Phinney, Rev. A. N. Lewis, Aritus G. Loomis, James Patterson, Louise Noyes, Wilbur V. Rood, Edwin Turtle, H. C. Talmage, O. C. B. Nason, Edgar H. Grout, Edward S. Boyd, H. B. Moore and Rev. Wm. Weeks. While Mr. Hulse was instructor in Parker Academy Mr. Thompson taught a select school in his residence situated on the adjoining premises. Some times there would be seventy-five scholars in each of the two schools, and it was not uncommon for six or more students to enter Yale or other colleges each year from these schools. Parker Academy was moved to its present location near the post office when Rev. A. N. Lewis was principal, and he conducted a boarding school for pupils in connection with the Parker House, then owned by Frederick S. Parker.

The Woodbury Library Association was established in 1851. In 1902, the former Parker Academy building became the town library. A modern library building was later constructed and the former Parker Academy is now the Library’s Galley Annex.

Wolcott Institute (1857)

The house at 180 South Street in Litchfield was originally (from 1857-1859) home to a boarding school for boys called the Wolcott Institute. The school was founded by Rev. Charles H. Seymour, who departed the following year. A listing for the school in 1859 indicated that its most recent rector, Rev. D. G. Wright, had resigned and the vacancy had not been filled. The school ceased operations that year.

Old South End Schoolhouse, Southington (1810)

The Old South End Schoolhouse in Southington, a one-room school, was built sometime after 1810, when the original and smaller schoolhouse on the site, built around 1760, burned down. The schoolhouse was in use until the new South End Elementary School opened in 1955. The old schoolhouse is now owned and operated as a museum by the Southington Historical Society.