Historic School

Cochituate School // 1910

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The Cochituate School in Wayland, MA, was built in 1910 to educate the Cochituate Village’s growing student population. The industrial village was dominated by shoe manufacturing with workers largely consisting of first- and second-generation European immigrants who moved to New England for work. Boston architect, Willard P. Adden, designed the school, which replaced an earlier schoolhouse on the site that was outgrown. The two-story, brick school was expanded following WWII, when a long rear ell with classrooms and a cafeteria was designed by Perry, Shaw & Hepburn. In the 1990s, the old Cochituate School was renovated and converted to senior housing administered by the Wayland Housing Authority.

Bow Center Schoolhouse // 1894

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One of the many one-room schoolhouses of rural New England, this late-19th century example can be found in the town center of Bow, New Hampshire. The vernacular schoolhouse served hundreds of pupils in the northern part of town, from its construction in 1894 until 1924 when it was moved to its present location near the old Town Hall, where it was in use until 1945. In 1948, the School District sold the school to the nearby Baptist Church for Sunday school classes. The Town bought the building from the Church in 1968 and restored it as an historic site. Today, the rebuilt Snow Roller used in the early 1900s to pack snow down for passage of horse-drawn sleighs and wagons, and a mill stone, sit nearby the old schoolhouse as sort of an open-air museum.

Old Houghton School // 1849

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In 1849, the Town of Bolton, Massachusetts, built its first high school, the Houghton School at 697 Main Street in the town center. Blending Greek Revival and Italianate styles, similar to Bolton’s 1853 Town Hall, the Houghton School is a large, two-story, pedimented building of wood-frame construction. Interestingly, the school was largely funded privately by a local resident, Joseph Houghton (1772-1847), who in his will, bequeathed land and $12,000 for a public high school for the town. By the terms of the donation, nine men (all of whom had at one time served as a Bolton tax assessor) and their descendants, were barred from attending the school for a hundred years. Questions about the bequest were put before the Massachusetts Supreme Court, which disallowed this clause. An additional requirement, stipulated that no teacher could serve there longer than two years. That restriction was eventually put aside in the early 20th century. In 1917, the high school was discontinued. The fenestration was likely altered around this time. Bolton began sending its high-school students out of town to a school of their choice, and the Houghton School became the Bolton junior high school. In 1970-71, the building was converted to town offices, with the Town Clerk and Assessor on the first floor and the Police Department on the second. Since 2012, the building houses Bolton Access TV, as well as The Conservation Trust and Friends of the Bolton Library.


Faunce Schoolhouse // 1844

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This one-story, well-proportioned schoolhouse is located in the town center of Kingston, Massachusetts. The Faunce Schoolhouse showcases all the hallmarks of the Greek Revival style, including the siting of the building with its narrow end facing the street to showcase the gable roof, corner pilasters, and the entablature completing the gable as a pediment. The school was built in 1844, shortly after the nearby Town House was completed, as a center primary school. Up until the early 1900s, one or two teachers taught first through fourth grades at the two-room school. By 1908, overcrowding at the school led to a town meeting that led to the construction of a new school to provide more space conducive to learning. The Center Primary School remained open, and in 1924, the school was renamed in honor of Walter H. Faunce, a former teacher, superintendent of schools, and town selectman. The building was abandoned as a school in 1926 and stood empty until 1934 when it was sold by the town to the Kingston Grange No. 323 for $400. The Grange occupied the building until 1959 when it sold the building back to the town for $4,000. The building was restored in the 1970s and remains a source of pride for the community to this day offering free meeting and event spaces for local non-profits.


Forbes Public High School // 1924

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The former Forbes Public High School in Westborough, Massachusetts, is an excellent example of a civic building in the Classical Revival style. Built in 1924 for a growing suburban community, the building was constructed as the town’s high school with the grounds and substantial funding donated by Francis and Fannie Forbes, life-long residents of town with Francis having roots going back to the earliest settlers here. The building was permitted in late 1924 and plans were drawn by the firm of Ritchie, Parsons & Taylor. who designed the large school with stone and brick construction, large arched windows, and pilasters breaking up the bays. Inside, the new building had 14 classrooms, a gymnasium, a shop room, and cooking rooms, all with fine carved woodwork. After WWII, Westborough further consolidated its schools, and built a new High School nearby. This building was repurposed as the Forbes Municipal Building, containing city offices and the Police Department headquarters.

Former Eli Whitney School // 1907

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Built a few decades after and located behind the Harvey School in Westborough, Massachusetts, the former Eli Whitney School is a landmark example of an educational building designed in the Neo-Classical style. Built between 1906-7, the school building replaced an earlier school on the site that was outgrown and outdated. Designed by architects Cooper & Bailey, the building stands two-stories tall with a central pedimented pavillion containing the entry that is framed by monumental fluted columns. The school was named after Eli Whitney, the famous American inventor, born in Westborough, who is widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution, and later moving to New Haven and manufacturing weapons. When Westborough schools consolidated into modern facilities in the second half of the 20th century, this building was then occupied by the YWCA, and have rented the facilities from the town until it was purchased in 2000.

Harvey School // 1883

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Built to meet the needs of an expanding and prosperous community, the Harvey School in Westborough, Massachusetts, was built as a neighborhood school and is both historically and architecturally significant. Located on Phillips Street, a residential, tree-lined street just north of the commercial center of town, the Harvey School was built in 1883 under the supervision of Dr. Edwin Bayard Harvey, a local doctor who served on the town’s School Committee and as superintendent of schools from 1887-1890. As a State Senator he introduced a bill in 1884, which became law, to provide free textbooks for schoolchildren of Massachusetts. The Queen Anne style school building was in plan, designed by Dr. Harvey, who hired the Worcester-based architectural firm of Barker & Nourse, to furnish plans and design the building itself. The school would eventually close in 1980 as many local schools were consolidated, and the building was rented to the Boy Scouts and the Westborough Community Chorus. Recent attention on the under-utilized building has initiated more discussion on the future of the building, which may eventually house a regional emergency communications center.

Former Broad Street School // 1861

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The oldest extant school building in present-day Central Falls, Rhode Island, is this brick schoolhouse, constructed in 1861, to serve as the main village school. The rather plain two-story brick building was built just before the Civil War, during a period of rapid industrialization and growth in Central Falls, when it was then the dense core of the town of Smithfield, Rhode Island. The building contained classrooms for pupils from elementary through high school. Italianate in style, the rather unadorned building does feature oversized windows with some containing rounded tops, deep eaves, and a subtle recessed arch in the central bay on the facade. The school has been vacated for some time, and in 2024, plans materialized to convert this building into affordable housing. Hopefully the renovation/restoration is thoughtful for such a significant piece of the city’s history.

Old Chicopee High School // 1917

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The Old Chicopee High School building is located at 650 Front Street, between the two major population hubs of Chicopee Center and Chicopee Falls and is one of the finest examples of Collegiate Gothic/Neo-Gothic Revival architecture in Massachusetts. The school building was constructed in 1917 from plans by architect, George E. Haynes as a central high school, a single building where pupils from all over the city could be educated. The population growth of Chicopee in the early decades of the 20th century necessitated additions and reworking of the spaces of the building, eventually outgrowing the building after WWII. In 1961, plans for a contemporary high school were completed and this building became a middle school for the City of Chicopee. Architecturally, the building stands out for its siting and high-quality design. The main facade features a central clock tower which contains the main entrance. The use of brick with cast stone trim and the castellated parapet add much dimension to the large building. The City of Chicopee have done a commendable job maintaining this important landmark.

Putnamville Schoolhouse // 1852

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Diminutive in scale, the one-room Putnamville Schoolhouse at 224 Locust Street in Danvers, Massachusetts, showcases a stark difference in scale and design to the later Wadsworth and Tapleyville schools in town. Built in 1852, the transitional Greek Revival and Italianate style schoolhouse served the more rural district number 3 in town. The first class of 42 pupils was taught by Miss Sophia C . Appleton who ranged from 5 to 15 years of age. Due to a consolidation of schools in town, the building finally closed in 1974. In 1976, the Danvers Art Association leased the building for years. It is unclear to me at this time what the school is used for. Does anyone know more?