Historic Sites

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Arcadia District 2 Schoolhouse - Fairville Station

Historic Site #:01-068   (Gone)   Type: E3 Town:Arcadia
Site Name:Arcadia District 2 Schoolhouse - Fairville StationGPS Coordinates:43.1059361517915, -77.0620913937824
Address:Southwest corner Fairville Station & Heidenreich Rd
Description:
Former student of the Brantling Hill Schoolhouse, Joyce De Rue, who worked at the Courier-Gazette Paper for over 20 years, is able to provide much insight into these schools specifically with regards to how they operated. In her article “Rural Schools - a Thing of the Past,” published in The Courier-Gazette, Joyce provides some general information for the Arcadia district schoolhouses Nos. 1-20, as well a bit of information on the District 2 Fairville Station Schoolhouse as well.1

Description written by John Trutt


 
 
Historic narrative:

Fairville Station Schoolhouse was an old brick schoolhouse that sat on the southwest corner of Fairville Station Road and Heidenreich Road. The schoolhouse closed in 1954. Nothing would happen related to the building until 11 years later when, on August 26th, 1965 a vote was held on whether or not to sell property. “On August 26, 1965 people voted against selling the property. No deed could be found at the time, although Frank Hartnagel claimed to own the land but not the schoolhouse.2 This led to a rather peculiar debacle in which no one could find the deed to the property. “Avery B. Robinson, then attorney to the school board, informed the group that he had spent most of the day searching for the deed to the property in the county clerk’s office and was unable to come up with anything. He said he went all the way back to 1823. “I can’t find anything to sell,” he said.” Eventually Frank Hartnagel was able to sell the school property to Russell Volpe, who tore the building down, landscaped the small hill it was located on, and built a residence to the west of where the schoolhouse was. This property was then later purchased in November of 1982 by David Herman.3



General schoolhouse information:

Most children started school at age 5 and immediately entered first grade as there was no kindergarten in most rural schools. A grade typically ranged from 1 student to 4 or more. There were a variety of subjects taught at the schools including, “arithmetic, reading, writing, spelling, social studies, and other basic material … per the educational law.4 When particular subjects were to be taught for specific grades. Students that were to take part were called to the front and students in other grades kept quiet and worked on other things in other parts of the room. Once a week, an afternoon would be dedicated to Bible studies with Miss Van Dusen. Miss Van Dusen used figures and a felt board depicting characters from different bible stories. She would also give out prizes occasionally for perfect attendance or for learning a specific number of verses from a book and chapter of the bible. There was also a recess period in which the students could play and eat. Each of the schools were heated by a wood or coal stove, which was the first thing the teacher would tend to when they arrived at the school. These stoves were also used to dry winter clothes.


Historical narrative written and compiled by John Trutt 


References:

Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. "Arcadia [Township]; Arcadia Business Notices; New Ark Business Notices; Fairville [Village]; Newark [Village]" New York Public Library Digital Collections.

1Sorah Devlin, “Joyce Ann Derue,” Finger Lakes Daily News (Finger Lakes Daily News, March 30, 2018),

2Rue, Joyce De. “Rural Schools - a Thing of the Past.” The Courier-Gazette. September 1, 1983.

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