Garfield School (Brunswick, New York)

The Garfield School, locally referred to as District # 2 School House, is a school building, which was built in 1881 in Brunswick, New York, United States. It has two classrooms and served students until the consolidation of Brunswick ( Brittonkill ) Central School District in the late 1950s. It was recorded in 1988 in the National Register of Historic Places ( NRHP) and so was the first building in Brunswick, which was entered in the register. In it, the Brunswick Community Library and the Brunswick Historical Society are housed.

The building is located at the corner of Moonlawn Road and New York State Route 2 (Brunswick Road) and belonged to the school board until it was transferred to the Town of Brunswick in 1986. It was named after President James A. Garfield, who in Brunswick taught writing at another school.

History

The need for the construction of a new school building in Brunswick in 1879 clearly when Edward Wait, the newly appointed District Commissioner for this part of Rensselaer County, fell into the District # 2, the federal superintendent of public education over the poor quality of many school buildings in his district defendant who suffered in some cases even under overcrowding. Within three years, ten new schools have been built in his district, including the Garfield School.

The planning of the school building is well documented. The management of the Town, faced with the increasing numbers of students faced and gave, perhaps inspired by the enthusiatische occurrence Waits, on 14 October 1879, the planning of a new school house in order. With the planning of a new school house Nicholas Pawley, a carpenter from Poestenkill was commissioned.

The fact that the design of the school building has been awarded as a public contract is significant because usually school buildings of the period were planned using templates in architecture books. They wanted that the Garfield School was to a beautiful part of the city.

The design called for a school building with two classrooms on two floors before, but which one came off and the schoolhouse realized as a one-story building, the two classrooms were located next to each other. The main building is 16.3 m long and 8.8 m wide. The two classrooms are rectangular and were separated by a movable wall of each other, so that the two rooms could be combined if necessary to accommodate larger groups about at an event can. A vestibule that served as a dressing room, pushed out approximately 2.5 m from the front. Both classrooms had their own entrance.

With the construction of Joachim Filieau was commissioned, who was a member of the city council at the time. Pawley, of which the design was made, had also participated in the tender, but not awarded the contract. Filieau and was also a carpenter and built the school house on the bases of the plan, had made the Pawley. Construction began in the summer of 1881 and was completed in time for the start of the school year. The cost was 2762 dollars (today equivalent to 67,500 U.S. dollars) and was financed through a combination of local taxes and four bonds of 500 U.S. dollars.

The design of the building is notable because he was not only focused on the fulfillment of the purpose, but also filled with architectural and aesthetic requirements. So the house has, for example, a gable roof and wood carvings on the two pediments. In addition, Pawley had a turret provided in his planning in order to avoid the impression of a flattened building; this is obtained, including the weather vane. Also unusual for the time in which the building was erected, the basement full basement.

Around 1920 was built on the back of the building with a growing sinks and toilets. This was done so that the schoolhouse was sufficient sanitary requirements that were prescribed for public schools since September 1918. This cultivation was the only major structural change in the history of the school building.

The Garfield School is considered the best preserved Schoolhouse in Rensselaer County. The building was used continuously since its establishment. While the baby boomers it was used even after the consolidation of the school district still temporarily. Later, the Brunswick Community Library moved into the old school house, as well as the Historical Society of Brunswick who was a little further housed a short time at the Little Red School House on the street. Until 1986 it belonged to the Brunswick Central School District, which then appropriated it to the Town of Brunswick.

The library will leave the building in late 2009.