Black Rock School (1860)

The Black Rock School in Killingworth is a one-room schoolhouse built around 1860. In the mid-nineteenth century, it was one of Killingworth’s eight district schoolhouses, which were in use until 1949. Originally located on Route 148, the school was later moved by the Killingworth Historical Society to its current address, on town property, at Route 81 and Recycle Way, where it is now a museum. The Society also owns the Union district school on Roast Meat Hill Road and recently accepted the donation of the Pine Orchard School, which has also been moved from Route 148 to town property, in this case, Parmelee Farm, where it will eventually be rebuilt.

Williams Memorial Institute (1891)

The Williams Memorial institute opened as a high school for girls on Broad Street in New London in 1891. The school was privately endowed by a bequest from the estate of Harriet Peck Williams as a memorial to her son, Thomas W. Williams II, a mechant who died in 1855. After New London High School opened in 1951, the Institute became a college preparatory school. The Williams School moved to the campus of Connecticut College in 1954. The Richardsonian Romanesque-style former school building, designed by the firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, became a courthouse of the Connecticut State Judicial system in 1972. The state purchased the building in 1997. It has recently been renovated.

The Academy, Orange (1878)

The first Academy building in Orange was constructed about 1821, across from Orange Green. In 1878-1879, a larger building replaced it. The second floors of both successive buildings were used for the school, while the first floors were used as assembly rooms by the town. In the twentieth century, town offices began moving into the building, which was enlarged to the rear. Administrative use by town government continued until a new Town Hall was built in 1967. The building next served as offices for the town’s Board of Education until 1989. Since then, the Academy has been leased to the Orange Historical Society for use as a museum.

Norwich Grange Hall (1869)

The building which is now the Norwich Grange Hall was built in 1869 as the West Town Street District School. It replaced an earlier public school on the same site, which had no longer met the needs of the growing school population. Before that, the Bean Hill Academy of 1792 had stood on the site. A private school for thirty years and then a public school, that building had been demolished in 1831. In the 1920s, with the building of the Samuel Huntington School, the 1869 building was sold to the Norwich Grange.

Harwinton First District School (1840)

Harwinton’s first school was built in 1747 and was soon joined by two others. By the nineteenth century, Harwinton had 12 one-room district schoolhouses. The former First District Schoolhouse, built in 1840, was moved to its current location, across the street from the post office on Route 118, by the Harwinton Lions Club in 1972 and restored the following year by the Harwinton Historical Society. Behind the school is the Society’s barn museum, which displays tools used on farms in the town in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

White Oak School House (1840)

When the first settlers came to Southbury from Stratford in 1673, they spent their first night under a white oak tree on Crook Horn Road, in what is now Settlers Park. That section of Southbury became known as White Oak and at 886 Main Street North is the old White Oak School House, built around 1840. More recently used as an antiques shop, the Greek Revival school house is part of a property, currently on the market, which includes the adjacent 1715 Croucher-Richmond House.