The Old Stone
Schoolhouse, at Red Oak Hill and
Coppermine roads, was a schoolhouse
from 1790 to 1872. From 1875 to 1956, it was
used as a chapel and community center. The
building is now owned by the Farmington
Historical Society. It is open for tours
each summer on Sundays during July and
August.
The historical society holds its annual
Scarecrow Contest and Fall
Festival each fall at the schoolhouse.
In 2008, the festival will be held October 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. Admission is
free.
Each year, dozens of children, parents and grandparents enjoy
the festival on the lawn of the schoolhouse. In the
Scarecrow Contest, awards are presented for the scariest, most stylish,
rottenest and happiest. In October 2006, movie tickets and Friendly's gift certificates were
awarded to each scarecrow creator.
"Wanda
the Witch." Bobbing for doughnuts,
Scarecrow Contest and Fall Festival,
2006
Also in 2006, Peg Yung of the historical society guided children
in creating ghost dolls and paper jack-o'-lanterns. Children also received
pumpkins donated by the Eaton, Grouten, and Hein family farms. And in a
variation on the Halloween game of bobbing for apples, children bobbed for
miniature Freihofer doughnuts strung on lines. Youngsters also learned how to
construct Colonial-style lanterns from sheets of tins provided by Orca, Inc.
Others enjoyed Colonial-era games using wooden hoops and bean bags.
The skeletal remains of the first schoolmaster,
Calvin Hatch, made an appearance, and Wanda the Witch, aka Kathy Lescoe of the
Barney Library, read from "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." Kathy said about
fifty children and parents crowded around her in the small schoolroom to sing
Christmas carols with Halloween lyrics and play "Pass the Witch's
Broomstick."
There was lots to eat, including homemade desserts,
cider and buttered popcorn made from home-grown Tunxis Plantation kernels.
The
Village School
by Josephine Canning
Oh, don't you remember the schoolhouse red
Which stood far
back on the hill,
And the great oak tree which lifted its head
Close by?
It stands there still.
You learned addition in that old place,
And the use of
verb and noun;
They have earned you much in life's hard race--
Give some to the
dear old town!
You have wandered far from the hearthstone gray
Where your
infant feet first trod,
You have walked in many a devious way,
But you worship
your father's God.
For you'll never forget the lessons taught,
When at night you
all knelt down
In the home that you hold with the tenderest thought,
In your own
old native town.
Ah! go when the summer solstice burns,
And your city home is hot,
Go look where the winding river turns
In the green old meadow lot.
Then ask the people what it needs,
And count it life's best crown
To build it up with filial deeds,
Your own dear native town!
--From Collinsville Record, July 15, 1906.
Published in the
"Green Book," Farmington, CT:
The Village of Beautiful Homes
Old Stone Schoolhouse Quiz
