Cobblestone School

Cobblestone Schoolhouse - In this 1890s or early 1900s view of the school to have survived is an action shot of the boys playing what appears to be a game of baseball, while the girls would likely have been observers on the sidelines. Note behind the school stood the wood shed with one of the “back houses” to its rear.

The early history of Guilderland Center District No. 6 goes back to 1812 when New York State passed new legislation requiring towns to create common school districts to educate local children up as far as eighth grade. In 1813 Guilderland town officials met at Widow Appel’s tavern when they set up eight school districts which eventually were increased to 14 as the town’s population grew during the 19th century. Each of these districts had three trustees to serve as boards of education. 

Property for the Guilderland Center school building was originally deeded to the community by Stephen Van Rensselaer, the last patroon. The deed contained a revision clause stating that if it were no longer used for education it would revert to his heirs. He had a large family and many descendants.

Guilderland Center’s District No. 6 Cobblestone School was built in 1860 by Robert Zeh, a Knowersville mason who left his name incised in the quoin at the corner of the building. It was one of three cobblestone one room schools he put up in Guilderland. The Osborn Corners School burned in 1892, while the building on Stone Road was converted to residential use when District 10 joined the Voorheesville Central School District and still stands today. 

Today the building looks very much as it was when Zeh originally completed it. The original bell still hangs in the cupola and is most likely from one of the Meneely bell factories either in West Troy (Watervliet) or Troy as the other surviving town school bells were. This cobblestone building replaced an earlier structure and remained in use for the children of the hamlet and the nearby surrounding area until 1941 when students began to be bussed to Voorheesville schools. It had never had running water with the result that privies were in use up until 1941. Heating came from a stove, originally burning wood, then converted to coal. Finally an oil stove was in use.

Guilderland finally centralized in 1950 and in 1953 opened modern elementary schools and in 1954 the Junior-Senior High School. With the opening of modern schools Guilderland Center students returned to the town’s central schools. During this time the centralized district sold the other existing one room schools, but because of the original restrictive deed, continued to own the Cobblestone School. For a short time it was used as the central district’s office.

Fortunately, a woman who was born in 1896 left a written account of what it was like when she attended this one room school in what would have been the early years of the 20th century. The school day at the Cobblestone School began in the morning at 9 am with the ringing of the school bell at top by pulling a rope fin the entry. It was rung again at 4 pm when the school day ended.

There was a heavy front door opening into an entry where there were two doors, one on the right for the boys and the other on the left for the girls. In the back corners of the main room were hooks for coats for hats. A shelf that ran around above that was where the lunch pails were placed. Almost no one had a lunch box at that time. A low shelf ran along the entry wall. On the boys’ side was a basin and towel and a mirror above the basin while on the girls’ side a pail for drinking water with a dipper hanging from a nail.

Once inside there were four rows of seats with two longer rows on either side of the room. There were two short rows in the center of the room. To account for the wide age ranges, the seats and desks were lower in front and higher and larger for older pupils.  In front was the teacher’s desk on a platform up about a foot off the floor. There were blackboards in back of the teacher’s desk. At either end of the blackboards were narrow bookshelves running floor to ceiling which they called the library. In the corner between the blackboard and the library was the place where an unruly pupil had to go stand with his back to the other students.

In the early 20th century the big pot bellied stove in the center back of the schoolroom burned coal which was stored out back was a small shed called the coal shed. Also out in back of that shed were the two privies which she called backhouses with a board fence between them, one for the boys and one for the girls.

Recess time often meant baseball for the boys with the girls standing around watching. Otherwise, there were other games that were played such as “Burn the City” and “Annie, Annie Over.” There was usually a picnic at the end of the school year as well.

From old photographs taken at various times over the decades the school was open there were either male or female teachers. They were expected to invite in the community to special programs presented by their students at such times as Columbus Day, Arbor Day and Christmas. 

By the early 1920s the school was electrified and new desks were purchased. The coal stove was replaced with an oil stove, Otherwise the students continued to be educated with all eight grades in one room until 1941.