Nova Scotia Schoolhouse

Nova Scotia School is a beautiful Greek Revival style schoolhouse that was built in 1853 on the corner of Fern Hill Road and Route 6. The school closed in June of 1929 was disassembled on Sept 4, 1990. Its reconstruction in Munson Park on DeForest Street was a joint project of The Lions Club Old Fellows, the UNICO Club, and the Watertown Historical Society, with an opening ceremony that was held on May 30, 1993. The schoolhouse is maintained by the Society and is furnished as it would have appeared in the nineteenth century.

Prior to 1852, all that is known about the Nova Scotia School District is that there was a schoolhouse in use. When it was first opened and where it stood has not been determined. It is believed that the district dates back to at least 1810.

Watertown, like many other Connecticut communities in the mid 1850’s, was a growing town with an increasing population and additional school space was needed to provide young people with an appropriate education. In 1852, although the Nova Scotia School district had a schoolhouse, it was determined, reason unknown, to build a new school building on land purchased earlier (on the corner of Fern Hill Road and Thomaston Road (Rt 6)).

Building dimensions were about 24’ x 40’, with a brick chimney on the north end. Two huge stone steps marked the south end entrance; one of them being 1 ½' wide x 9' long. It has a high inverted V type roof. On October 31, 1854, land adjacent to the original property was leased (from Julvia Daily) for the purpose of building a woodshed; additional out-buildings were constructed.

In the Selectments Report dated October 1, 1872, it was reported that 30 scholars were registered in the Nova Scotia District and the expected cost of running the school for the following year was $301.25.

A typical problem of the rural schools of the era was the difficulty in keeping a teacher. This was of particular concern in 1883, when ruman P. Baldwin, then the clerk of the Board of School Visitors, wrote in his Annual Report that Nova Scotia School had three different teachers. The report went on to state, “We need more first-rate teachers who can be kept for consecutive terms, teachers who have a live interest in the subject matter taught.”

In 1897, the district school reported, ‘few pupils and these very irregular in attendance, partly on account of illness and partly on account of the distance to travel in bad weather.” The following year Mr. Baldwin reported, “this district excels all other districts of the town by caring for and keeping up its library…”

In 1898 there were 8 grades. Abbie Foote was the teacher. Eula Skilton a pupil (6 years old). During the 1913-1914 school year, a significant improvement to teaching at the school was made - blackboards were added to all rural schools, including French Mountain School, Guernseytown School, Linkfield School and Nova Scotia School.

Statistics from the 1902 Annual Report reflect the climate of student life in the small one-room schoolhouse. The 1902 Nova Scotia School district enumeration was 29, although on a daily basis attendance would range from a low of 10 to a high of 29. The school year was the typical 36 week cycle separated into Fall, Winter and Summer sessions. One teacher, always a female, was paid approximately $30 per month. The teacher was responsible for the cleanliness of the building, as well as maintaining heat (a large wood stove).

Originally located at the corner of Thomaston and Fern Hill Roads, classes commenced in 1853 and ceased June, 1929. When classes ceased at the school in June 1929, it was not for lack of enrollment, since there were 19 registered students. A new high school was completed making space available in more modern facilities. Additionally, transportation from outlying areas had improved significantly. After a 77 year illustrious career serving the children of Nova Scotia, the property was left to the town.

“The problems of the rural schools are many. It is difficult to find a good teacher with experience who cares to go out into the country. When she is found, she often finds it difficult to get a place to live. Then there is the difficulty of providing adequate equipment, well ventilated and heated buildings and sanitary conditions. It can be done, but only at great expense. One way to try to solve all these difficulties is to substitute one big problem for the many lesser ones. Closing rural schools and transporting the pupils to central schools has worked successfully in many towns no more favorably situated than Watertown. It should work here and is being tried this year. Three schools, French Mountain, Linkfield and Nova Scotia have been closed and the pupils are being carried to the Baldwin School in a large, completely enclosed heated and ventilated bus.”

Thereafter, the old school changed hands several times; the first sale occurred on July 1, 1935. In 1990, the Nova Scotia School Committee was formed. On September 4, 1990, the school was disassembled and stored on Northfield Road for 2 years until its new site was made ready and an opening ceremony was held May 30, 1993. This was a joint project of the Watertown Historical Society, the Lions Club-Old Fellows Project Club and the UNICO Club.

Some things you should know about the Nova Scotia Schoolhouse!!

from Florence Crowell

When the school was reassembled on the Munson property and opened to the public on Memorial Day 1993,7 former students rode in vintage cars and were dropped off at the school. Over 350 people stopped in that day and since then, many school classes, scout troops, church groups, etc. have visited.
Children were called into school when a handheld bell was rung. Boys and girls were in separate lines.
The ceiling was rounded in the front and the back (same as today). The wainscoting, the wood on the walls below the windows is the same wood that was in the school when it was built.
When the school was first used there would be a woman teacher when school opened because men were always busy on the farm in the fall. The woman would teach for 3 months. Then perhaps a man would teach for 3 months. By then it would be time for the men to plant crops so a woman would finish out the year. They divided the school year up - 12 weeks for the Fall period, 12 for the Winter period and 12 for the Spring period. Older boys were busy on the farm in fall and spring helping their father so they had poor attendance at school. Consequently, they did not complete each grade in the time that they should and often they were 16 years old and they were still in the one-room school.
There were seldom any storm days. The teacher usually lived near the school and was always able to get there. Any children who lived near the school would be there.
There were usually 10-29 children attending this school. In 1902 there were 29 and the small children had to sit 2 in a seat. The school housed grades 1-6 and there was no kindergarten. Parents had to provide transportation when children went to school beyond 6th grade. Grades 7-8 were available at Center School (e.g. Baldwin School); about 1900 a high school was started on the 2nd floor in Center School. The first class to graduate had 5 students.
Because the teacher was the only adult in the school, she had to be a nurse and janitor. There were no special teachers so she had to teach music and art. There was no telephone in the school so the teacher could not call a mother if a child was injured or sick.
In order to teach school, one did not have to go to college. Sometimes a girl would finish 8th grade in June and come back as the teacher in September. Sometimes they would go to a private school for a year before teaching. If the teacher did not live near the school she would sometimes live with the parents of some of the children. When Mrs. Judd, who was principal of Polk School at one time, started teaching at the Poverty District School before she was married, she lived with the Lynn family and had to sleep with one of the Lynn girls who was about 12 at the time.
There was always a stove, and many times it would be what we call a pot-bellied wood-burning stove. It was the duty of the fathers of the children to see that there was plenty of wood in the woodshed. Older boys had to come to school early and start the fire in the stove. He also had to make sure the woodbox was full so that the teacher would have plenty of wood to put in the stove during the day, and he had to shovel a path from the road so the teacher and children could get into the building.
The school had no running water and a boy would take the pail and go to the farm next door, get a pail of water, bring it back to the school and place it on a low table and place the dipper in the pail. Everyone drank from the water using the same dipper. Later each school had a jug with a lid and spigot at the bottom, and each child had to bring a drinking glass in from home. This was usually placed on an oil-cloth covered shelf in the girls coat room. Each glass had to have the child’s name on it; mothers often used bandage adhesive tape for this purpose. Glasses would be turned upside down on the shelf after being used and water and germs would run all over the shelf and all the glasses.
Desks with a hole in the top right corner held an inkwell. After the children had left in the afternoon, the teacher would take some of the water from the pail and mix in a blue powder - ink. She would check each desk to be sure there was enough ink in the well for the next day. Each child had a wooden pen handle and a small metal pint, called a nib, was placed in the handle. The pen would be dipped into the inkwell and the child would write as long as there was ink on the pen. Because there was no heat in the school after the teacher went home, it got very cold overnight. Many winter mornings, when the children opened the cover on the inkwell they would find that the ink was frozen. They would have to use a pencil until the ink thawed.