Going (way) back to school

No sooner had we got our supplies for the July Fourth holiday weekend than store shelves began to fill with back-to-school necessities.

Now, as the summer ends and a new school year begins, thanks to Barbara Russell, Brookhaven Town historian, residents can take a short visit to a simpler time when a new Center Moriches school cost a mere $7,000. Praised as “an ornament to the village” on the front page of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, it was dedicated on Feb. 23, 1897.

A state-of-the-art school when it opened, it consisted of four rooms heated by steam, as well as a separate reading room, library and principal’s office, teachers’ room and bicycle room.  A finished basement served as a playroom.  By contrast, a two-room West School in Manorville, built in 1929, housed 45 pupils in grades 1-8 and two teachers; the fifth-through-eighth-grade teacher also served as principal.

The village was in a celebratory mood on the day of the dedication. There was music and “recitations by students and local talent.”  And principal Meeker provided a brief history of education’s progress in Center Moriches.

The earliest school on record, built in 1820, sat on land later purchased by the Methodist Church, so it was moved to East Moriches.

The new school built in 1830 on the corner of Union Avenue—at the time, a path to the bay—was “of rude construction and measured 16’ X 25’ with older students having to use as desks long, wide boards attached to the room’s perimeter at a slanted angle.”  Younger children sat on benches around a stove in the center of the room used to heat the school.

Of the 35 pupils, more than half would leave school in spring to work on local farms or the bay.

Today’s parents may appreciate school budgets more when they learn the early system required payment per child enrolled; those who could not pay had their costs added to the accounts of those who could.

Teachers were expected to work with children of varying ages, without blackboards and to “board round”—that is, live with the families whose children they taught.

A new school built in 1837 was larger and had a more refined exterior, but the same rude interior as its predecessor.  At least it had the appearance of progress.

A meeting in 1870 to promote building a new $900 schoolhouse failed to garner support.  A more modest proposal—for $780—led to the construction of a “state-of-the-art for its time” school by Joshua Penney and John Bishop.

The 1870 school was in use until Friday, Feb. 19, 1897, when the last classes were held before the move into the new school.  It stood on the corner of Brookfield Avenue and Main Street, where it served as a public school until 1926 when it became a parochial school, according to “The Illustrated History of the Moriches Bay Area” by Van and Mary Field.

Although the space it occupied is now a parking lot, there are still two of the original school buildings in town. Barbara Russell’s research revealed that one early school became a Tri-Tec lab and is currently a private home on Canal Street. A second retired school building became the home of St. John’s Episcopal Church on Railroad Avenue.

A quick look at either building and we can see how much our schools have changed, both in size and design, as they have continued to serve, and as another school year begins, for the Center Moriches community.