On the corner of School House
Road lies a small red one room building.
Inside, in the front of the room, stood a teacher’s desk, on which was
placed a few old pencils. The blackboard
was, amazingly, still intact. On the
floor, near the doorway, was a bright red piece of wood which was used to cover
the “tobacco hole,” the place where colonial students disposed their tobacco
before coming to class. These are the
descriptions of the Burrows Hill Schoolhouse from a 1993 article, “It was
moving day for Burrows Hill School” written in The Chronicle.
The Burrows Hill
Schoolhouse is one of nine one-room schoolhouses in Hebron, Connecticut that
remains standing, and the oldest one to date.
The original Burrows Hill Schoolhouse was built around 1730, when some
of the earliest families in the Burrows Hill area, such as the Porters, Macks,
Skinners, and Tillotsons realized that a school was necessary for the education
of the increasing number of children in town.
The school operated from its start until between
the years of 1834 through 1860, because of the decline in the number of children
in the Burrows Hill area. Desks were
removed from the inside the schoolhouse and transferred to the Hope Valley
section where, at the time, the population was greater. Later, around the 1860’s, the Burrows Hill
Schoolhouse reopened when Hope Valley experienced a decline in population. The Burrows Hill Schoolhouse flourished into
the 1870’s, until the population gradually declined in the early 1900’s. Around 1911, the Burrows Hill Schoolhouse
offered its last school session to the town of Hebron, before closing its
doors. Students were then transferred to Hebron Center School. While no longer in use, the Burrows
Schoolhouse is one of the oldest buildings within our town (some argue it is
the oldest existing building to date), and now a historical monument. The Hebron Historical Society is responsible
for maintaining the foundation of the building.
Since its founding, which
is believed to be somewhere around 1725 through 1735, the Burrows Schoolhouse
has been through several refurbishings and restoration projects. In the past year and into 2016, Ron Vitarelli
from Hebron Boy Scouts Troop 28 has repaired the outhouse at the Burrows Hill
Schoolhouse as part of his Eagle Scout Project.
Ron began by taking down and cutting up the maple that was overhanging
the outhouse and then began repairing various parts of the outhouse from replacing
boards, painting the entire building, installing the stone for better drainage
beneath, and moving the outhouse back to its original foundation. Ron and his fellow Eagle Scouts have
refurbished and restored the outhouse for the public eye. While Ron’s renovation is the most recent
renovation on the historical building, it is certainly not the first. The Burrows Hill Schoolhouse has a long list
of renovations just in the past twenty five years.
Ben Staba and his
son-in-law, John Hoban, originally supplied and installed the Burrows Hill
Schoolhouse eighteen years ago (see below).
More recently
in 2005, Matthew Siok, a Hebron resident, led a team of volunteers to repair and
refurbish the Burrows Hill Schoolhouse as part of his Eagle Scout project for
Troop 28. He and his team of volunteers
scraped and painted the exterior of the Burrows Hill Schoolhouse, as well as
painted and repaired the windows. If you'd like more info on Matthew's renovations on the Burrows Hill Schoolhouse, please check here for more details: http://www.hebronhistoricalsociety.org/restoration-projects/101-matthew-sioks-eagle-scout-project-on-burrows-hill-school-house.html
Matthew Siok in front of the Burrows Hill Outhouse
And now, Ron Vitarelli has
followed up these repairs for the outhouse at the Burrows Hill Schoolhouse as
part of his Eagle Scout Project. The
Hebron Historical Society is very thankful for Ron Vitarelli’s assistance, as
well as Ben Staba, John Hoban, and Matt Siok for preserving our town’s heritage
and history.
Check out the Burrows
Hill Schoolhouse on School House Road.
