A history of the Winchester school system, 1773-1960

Part 1: Public schoolsAs was typical in New England villages, the First Society of Winchester first established a church, then in 1773 voted “two pence on the pound” to support a school. Through the next few years the taxable rate was increased and by 1778 there were five districts in the First Society (Winchester). Probably most classrooms were in the homes or barns of inhabitants, although there were those who reminisced about the “Two Chimney Schoolhouse” probably located on the site where the Little Red Schoolhouse (District 8) now stands near Winchester Center.Connecticut’s General Assembly ordered towns to organize into educational societies. The sale of Connecticut’s western lands in Ohio were expected to compensate the societies for educational costs. However, the expected funds did not materialize due to the occupation of the British army who had not relinquished their forts after the American Revolution in the Western Reserve and Canada. The British allied themselves with the Native American inhabitants who successfully held back settlement of the area for decades. Therefore, by the early 1800s, in the First Society of Winchester and the Second Society of Winchester (Winsted), the expense of the school was borne by those whose children attended within the district the family lived. Taxation, according to Frank DeMars in a paper he submitted to the Winsted Evening Citizen in 1930, was assessed by the number of chimneys a homeowner had in his house. Apparently, each fireplace in a home was assessed a tax of $1.25 annually to pay for education. In 1796, it was voted that the Second Society (Winsted) would have seven districts. The subsequent growth of Winsted, in the first half of the 19th century, encouraged the growth of school districts. The size, shape and number of districts fluctuated yearly until 1843 when the number of districts increased to a record high of 14, while the First Society (Winchester) maintained its five districts, creating a total of 19 districts. By 1854, the school societies were disbanded- deemed unwieldy and excessive. The schools were run completely on the district system with a more streamlined approach — by 1870 only nine districts remained in the entire township. School districts divided the town of Winchester into sections. The property owners within these sections owned the school property and raised special school taxes to pay the expense. Each district had its own school committees and elected school “visitors” who monitored the schools. The size and age of the schools varied within the nine districts, but, by the 1870s, the larger schools were located in Winsted as districts merged. In addition, the long demanded “grading” of schools began in the borough of Winsted in 1869. Hereafter, students were enrolled in classes based on age and educational attainment. In Winchester, the smaller, older country schoolhouses remained ungraded in their one-room school houses. As the districts in Winsted contracted down to two schools, larger and more efficient buildings were necessary, but the way to building new schools within each district was strewn with rancorous disagreements. The call for better schools was initiated, in 1863, by former teacher and now highly successful businessman, William L. Gilbert. He offered to fund $20,000 if a matching amount could be raised by other businessmen to build an up-to-date school in Winsted. The Winsted Herald began an extensive campaign to raise the monies. However, the needed amount fell short — resistance by private schools is often quoted as the reason. Apparently the Herald thought that working men should make up the difference if the wealthy refused — a very naïve supposition since the average income of working men in that era was less than $10 a week. Gilbert took his money elsewhere, establishing the Gilbert Academy and Agricultural College for former slaves in the newly named, Winsted, Louisiana. Nevertheless, by 1869, a new building was erected on the corner of Spencer Street for the 4th District School at the cost of $30,000. At this time, a high school department was established within the building on the upper floor known as West Winsted High School. In 1884 an addition extended the building along Spencer Street and in 1900, an additional building in brick was erected to house the burgeoning school population, although the high school department was eliminated in 1895 when the William L. Gilbert High School was opened. In the East Village, construction began on a new four-room building that would house students from the 1st and 2nd combined district. This new District 1 building was erected at the cost of $27,000. It, too, would house a high school until 1895, as well as a kindergarten and elementary school. The site, at the corner of North Main Street and Wetmore Avenue, was fraught with difficulty since it was swampy and required extensive grading prior to erection of the building.For almost two decades the consolidation of the district schools under town management was sought by the town of Winchester, yet mightily resisted by town voters until 1908. After consolidation, a town school board was established in 1909. One of the board’s first duties was to apportion the costs of transferring the existing schools from the district into common town property. This created a great deal of bickering as residents in the 4th District wanted compensation for their brick building that was less than 10 years old, while residents, particularly in Winchester, did not want to pay for a school their children did not attend. Appraisal of the various school buildings commenced and a 14 mill equalization tax was laid to compensate the various districts. Winchester Center was appeased with $5,000 to build a new central school in Winchester and closing the old, one-room school houses of the various districts. Ironically, the Winchester Center School is the only school that is no longer standing in the rural districts. All of the older schools still remain intact, serving as homes or sheds, and in the case of the Little Red Schoolhouse, preserved as a museum. The center school was removed circa 1960 when the Winchester children were enrolled in Winsted schools.The 1920s saw the Board of Education scrambling to either replace or repair the former 1st and 4th District schools. Also on the agenda of the superintendent’s 1920 meeting was the call for a junior high school, presumably mid-distance between the two elementary schools. All the plans were defeated in 1922 but in 1923, $20,000 was voted to repair the two aging schools. However, in 1924 the Woman’s Club inspected the schools and drew up a report condemning the condition of the buildings. In particular, they deplored the constant flooding of the wooden building by the stream along the 4th District school which was causing rapid rot and deterioration of the building and allowing sewage into the basement — a fact that the State Board of Health had reported as well. In addition, the 1st district school had been plagued by fires. Three plans were suggested by the school board in 1925:• Erect a new building at the 4th District school;• Build a large central school large enough to house all students;• Erect a new building at 1st District school and an additional central school. A committee to study the problem, recommended with its report that $270,000 be appropriated for new school buildings and the town’s voters concurred in 1925. The plan for a new building at the 4th District school was abandoned since the original problem, a stream running under the building, would still create havoc; the second plan was not considered; the third plan — to erect a new building at the 1st district school and the building of a central school as a middle school — was adopted. An additional $125,000 was approved to purchase land from the Wetmore estate as a site for the middle school. The new brick elementary school building, which faced the same problems as the older building with its siting on a swampy, quicksand-like soil, was completed in 1927 and renamed the Green Woods School. The new central school with grades six to eight on the Wetmore property was completed in time for the 1928 school year and named, appropriately enough, the Central School. The wooden building at the 4th District school was removed in 1928. Now, all Winsted school buildings were built of brick and the one Winchester building was built of wood.Frank DeMars often publicly urged that the 4th district school be renamed the Batcheller school since William H. Batcheller had started a fund to provide scholarships for students from his alma mater. This did not happen. However, in 1960 after the Winchester Center School was closed, another elementary school was added in Winsted on Pratt Street which was named after this benevolent resident of Winsted. The 4th District school was not renamed until 1950 when a new building was added and the school became known as the Mary P. Hinsdale Elementary School. The Central School was renamed the Isabelle Pearson School in 1958 in honor of another beloved educator. In 2015, the Batcheller, Mary P. Hinsdale Elementary School and Isabelle Pearson School still remain in the town’s hands but the Green Wood’s school had been sold years earlier to the State of Connecticut and has been integrated into the community college system. The problem of what to do with the aging, deteriorating buildings remaining is complicated by the relationship of The Gilbert School, a semi-private school founded in 1895.Virginia Shultz-Charette is a former adjunct college U.S. History instructor, vice-chair of Soldiers’ Monument and co-author of the Arcadia Publication “Winsted and Winchester.”