The old stone schoolhouse in Phippsburg, Maine, still stands today, a testament to its fortitude. It was built in 1838 by Nathanial Percy (a local farmer) with the help of his neighbors, and it remained an active school until 1929. In addition to a school, the building was also used as a town meeting hall and even a church at times. It stayed in the Percy family until 1945, when it was purchased by Richard and Jane McLanathan of Boston and New York. When they died in 1996 and 2004, it was bought by the Wirth family and remains in their care.
But this is not about who owned or now owns the old stone
schoolhouse. It’s about the schoolhouse
itself. It was attended by the children
of Phippsburg, a town that saw its earliest pilgrims in 1607 and 1608 at the
Popham Colony. The schoolhouse was built
over 200 years after that, so you can see the history that the area
carries. Phippsburg is one of my
favorite places in Maine
because a good portion of it is still unspoiled, and the tourism is not as
intense as some of the islands get. Also,
the people of Phippsburg are genuine folks who do not put on airs of any kind,
even though they live in such a splendid area.
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| The old stone schoolhouse in Phippsburg, Maine. |
I picture the children who went to this school, in an area
that--except for the road it now borders on--looks a good deal as it did back
when the schoolhouse was built. There are remains of an old stone wall in the front.
These stone walls are everywhere in Maine.
Some surround old houses as borders, some were used as property markers,
and some marked treaty lines between settlers and the natives who lived here. These walls were built without mortar. The stones were expertly fit together
naturally, and they are still strong and sturdy.
Do you remember when you went to grade school? Imagine if it looked like this. Does the building you went to stand out in
your memory like this would have? Is
your building still there? And was it in
a rustic setting in the woods, surrounded by a 36-acre forest? Some children were lucky enough to have that experience
a couple of hundred years ago. The rest
of us can still look at the solid stone building and dream about it.
