District #2 was on Center Hill, northwest of the Center School District. The earliest known school in this district, and in the town, was on the south side of Slade Rd. between Center Hill and Park Roads. It operated from the 1770s to the 1820s and was said to have been housed in a log cabin. If that is true, it probably identifies one of the earliest homesteads in Barkhamsted. In the 1770s, people didn’t usually build schoolhouses, log cabin or otherwise: they would take over an older unused building and made use of that as a school. This “log cabin” would probably have been a settler’s home from a much earlier time that had been abandoned by the 1770s. This school was replaced about 1820 by a brick building on the north side of the street. This school was often referred to as the Birch School and it remained in use until 1937. The building was in place until the 1950s, but is now gone.
District 2 - Center Hill School
Class Photos & Schoolhouse Memories Archive
Center Schoolhouse, undated
4 boys, 7 girls, male teacher. The doorway of the brick building suggests that this is the Center Hill School. The teacher looks somewhat like Hollis French who taught in the area (he was in Washington Hill in 1915), but he is not listed as having taught there.
Digital Image: MD-38.
Center Hill School, 1928/1929
This is close-up of one section of a larger photo of Center Hill School. The school was in operation until 1932.
Based on number of boys and girls, plus dress, this is probably the 1928/29 school year.
The class list for that year identified:
Anna Garay (age 5), Mary Garay (age 11), Susan Garay (age 9), Mary Sterpka (age 11), Harry Chatfield (age 10), Willis Hart (age 11), Carl Hurd (age 12), Andrew Garay (age 12), John Garay (age 8), Paul Garay (age 7), Andrew Sterpka (age 13), Paul Sterpka (age 7), Walter Struck (age 10)
Digital Image: MD-51
Help Us Fill in the Blanks!
Please note that there are images of school groups in this collection about which we have no current information. Also, not every student in every picture is identified: sometimes the handwriting is too hard to read. So, consider this a first step in locating the available pictures of your ancestor. There may be more in the collection if you dig a bit deeper.
Feel free to add additional information and/or pictures to the collection. We are always interested in acquiring digital scans of relevant pictures: you don’t have to part with what may be a cherished heirloom photo. Come visit or email us at bhs@barkhamstedhistory.us.