Date from the History of Salisbury, New Hampshire by John Dearborn, 1890, Salisbury Lost by Paul S Shaw, 1995, and vintage maps
1) Smith’s Corner School 1782
The first building was erected and sold in 1784. Second-1789 Western Salisbury, junction now of Mill Rd, Couchtown, and the Warner Rd. Over time, two schools have existed in this location.
2) SOUTH ROAD SCHOOLS
According to the history of Salisbury, three school locations are indicated, including one as part of Salisbury Academy:
- 1778 abt– First was built on the Southwest Corner of Captain Webster’s land on the Gale Lot. No photos of the original school are available. More research is needed to determine the location.
- 1787 -The second school was located opposite the Bartlett House of today (PA Fellows residence) on Mrs Crane’s land in a private residence. No photos of the original school are available. It is described as lot No. 23, laid out for Samuel Stevens. This lot is east of Bog Road same side, and was run as a school for many years. This school was moved to a portion of Academy Hall when it was moved to Center Village.
- 1806 District 1- Academy Hall is moved to the junction of Old Coach and Route 127 and absorbs the South Road School, which uses two rooms on the first floor. 1795- located on Garland Hill, 1806 moved to South Road Village.
3) Center Road School 1778
Salisbury Heights, Rte 4 and West Franklin Rd. The photo that exists below is likely the rebuilt school after the districts were formed, but that is unclear. Two or three schools have existed in this area. One is described by John Dearborn as located a “short distance west of FW Fifield’s barn”. This may have been built in 1778 and no longer exists. Afterwards, north of the meeting house at the junction of Rte 4 and West Salisbury Road, built possibly in 1877 and no longer exists, though it is likely the photo of the Old Red School House is indeed this building. The third school was built where the Salisbury Free Library is today, and it operated along with Academy Hall as the only 2 schools in Salisbury at the time. The population had severely dwindled at that time. See the Center Road School page for photos. The Salisbury Free Library was the newer elementary school when use at this building was discontinued.
4) NORTH ROAD SCHOOL
North Road and Montgomery Road. The school was closed in 1920 and may have been used for the entire time until its closing. In 1890, John Dearborn, in the History of Salisbury, proclaimed this the oldest schoolhouse in the town in existence then.
5) Mills School, West Salisbury
- ca 1806 A school existed, but perhaps not in an official schoolhouse, a residence.
- ca 1816 A schoolhouse existed on Mountain Road. Eight early residences extending up to the Andover line from the Blackwater River appear to have existed in this area at one time.
- ca 1884-mid 1920s New building was erected, located between the Pingree bridge and Dunlap Road, closer to Pingree Bridge, across the road from the river.
Piecing together the timeline on the History of Old Schoolhouses in Salisbury
1768-1778 One-room Schoolhouse exists on the top of Searle’s Hill.
In 1778, four school areas were set up. It was voted to divide the town into 4 schools: Smiths Corner, South Road, Center Road, and North Road. Described below.
The four public schoolhouses were built, boarded, and shingled, with windows and huge fireplaces.
1795-Academy Hall is built on Garland Hill, located near the end of now Whittemore Road.
1784- There was a dissolution of schoolhouse holdings by the town. Which schools may have continued in operation, or were shuttered or removed, requires more research. It appears North Road School stayed in operation.
1819- Eleven School Districts established
At one time, the town of Salisbury had 14 school districts with one-room schoolhouses and one teacher each to help educate children of various ages. Some seem like quite remote locations, but at the time, in the early to mid-1800s, the town was dotted with larger farms, a large population, and extensively cleared land. Below is a description of the districts.
At one time, the town of Salisbury had 14 school districts with one-room schoolhouses and one teacher each to help educate children of various ages. Some seem like quite remote locations, but at the time, in the early to mid-1800s, the town was dotted with larger farms, a large population, and extensively cleared land. Below is a description of the districts.
The District numbers and information below come from excerpts of John Dearborn’s History of Salisbury.
Educational, at the first town-meeting, it was voted ” to raise some money for school purposes.” In 1772, twelve dollars was voted to support a school; it was also voted ” to raise half a day’s work on the single head, to be done on the south end of the sixty-acre lot, which was laid out for the school.” This lot was situated on Searle’s Hill, on the centre range-way, opposite the ten-acre meeting-house lot. The schoolhouse was built in the summer of 1772 and was the first in town.
In 1778, the town was divided into four school districts. The school-houses were wooden-framed, boarded and shingled, and furnished with windows and fireplaces. One was located near Smith’s Corner. It was built by Beniah Bean for three hundred and ninety-eight dollars. The second at South Road, built by Deacon John Collins for six hundred and eighty dollars. Another was situated at the Centre Road, nearly opposite F. W. Fifield’s present residence, built by Edward Fifield for six hundred au«l seventy-eight dollars; and the last was at North Road. Mr. Andrew Pettingell received four hundred and ninety-four dollars for building it. Such buildings, soon after, could have been completed for less than half the cost of these. But money was so much depreciated that labor commanded eight dollars per day. The amount raised annually for schools at this time was about five hundred dollars, while three thousand dollars were appropriated for the improvement of roads.
In March 1784, it was ” Voted to sell all the school lands and put the principal in the bank and use the interest for the support of schools in the town annually.” It was also voted at the same meeting “to sell the school-houses belonging to the said town and the money be contributed to the use of the town.”
The sale of the school-houses brought, in the aggregate, $63.75 each, and the land was sold to Ephraim Colby for three pounds, fifteen shillings, and three pence per acre. In 1786, the town raised two hundred and ten dollars, in lawful money, for the support of schools, and ordered each district to provide its schoolrooms.
In 1791, a schoolhouse was built at the Lower village (now the Orphans’ Home District in Franklin). In this building, Daniel Webster attended school and later in life taught. The second school-house, at the South road, was built by subscription in 1787. After the academy was removed from its original location to South Road, the school was transferred to one portion of it and has since continued.
In 1819, the town was divided into eleven school districts, and there were schoolhouses in nine of them. Changes were subsequently made, increasing the number to fourteen.
No. 1 South Road District was organized in 1820.
No. 2 Centre Road District was formed on April 2, 1823. (Three schools have been located in this area)
No. 3 Sawyer’s District was organized in 1820.
No. 4 Scribner’s Corner, near Flood floodplain now.
No. 5 North Road District.
No. 6 Mills District School. Their buildings are 1806, 1816, 1884
No. 7 Smith’s Corner at the more westerly part of the town. The first schoolhouse was erected in 1782. The second was twenty by twenty-five feet, erected in 1789. In 1825, the district was reorganized and a new schoolhouse erected.
No. 8 Thompson Corner District Original schoolhouse built abt 1772 (Searles Hill) 1816-second schoolhouse built
No.9 Loverin Hill District or Center Road District 2 1826
No. 10 Watson District
No.11 Racoon Hill , 1857, still in use 1876
Now part of Franklin, NH:
No.12 Shaws Corner District House#1-built 1820 #2-1820-1881
No.13 Lower Village District near Orphans Home/ Webster Place complex
No.14 East Village District abt 1805 or 1806
In an Oral History Project conducted by Paul S. Shaw, MD., from about 1998 to 1990, several of the elders of the town shared their recollections of their life in Salisbury. One of the topics that several discussed was the old schoolhouses and their participation on the school board.
You can read recollections of the old school days from the Oral History Project by Paul S. Shaw and Gail Manion Henry on the link below:
Remembering The Old School Days
Mills School, Smith’s Corner School, Salisbury Heights Center Village Schools
To get some idea of what it may have been like inside one of these one-room schoolhouses, we are including here a link to a beautiful video created by the Andover Historical Society of NH, the town next door to ours, which shows it quite well. The school is called The Tucker Mountain School and is still open to visitors at specific times. At this point, we do not know if our schoolhouse had slanted floors as this one does. The earliest schoolhouse had fireplaces rather than wood stoves. Once wood stoves were introduced, it is logical that they would have been placed in the center of the room rather than the front, as is shown in this video, thereby creating a somewhat more even heat. The blackening of walls, which turned them into visible blackboards, would also have made good sense. Individual desks were introduced sometime later in the 1800s. These bench-style style longer desks were the most economical way to furnish a schoolhouse in the small farming clusters throughout the town.