A history of the Winchester school system, 1773-1960

Part 2: Private schools

Private schools and academies flourished in Winchester and Winsted for those students whose parents saw the need for education beyond the “no-frills” education of the early public schools. Some of the academies were established by educators, others by clergy, and the most famous of all by a businessman. As mentioned before, the method of taxing for education was via the number of fireplaces. This had the wealthier and more progressive parents, who saw the value of education beyond what was offered in the districts, at a disadvantage. In 1810 in the village of Winsted, there were four home owners taxed at the $5 rate, 18 at $3.75, 64 at $2.50 and 69 at $1.25. The less affluent families determined the level of education, and for many of them, education beyond primary school and the rudimentary “three R’s” held no value.

Private schools during the century were paid by parents based on how often their student attended. Some students were to provide their own seating, and all textbooks were the responsibility of the students (as were textbooks in the public schools until the middle of the 20th century). Some schools survived for decades, others for only a few years. Several of these schools garnered attention for their vision and academics. For example, in the decade of the 1870s, several private schools in Winsted accepted and boarded Chinese students whose government wished them to learn western culture. Also, in Winchester, the exclusive Winchester Institute taught young boys and men. Some of these former students later achieved prominence in their field and one, William H. Welch, went on to be featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1930 for his achievements in medicine. 

Other fine schools were added in Winsted as the Catholic Church founded schools for young boys and a separate one for girls. They would eventually be combined into St. Anthony’s school. Once the children graduated, they would go on to the public high schools — until 1895 when the high schools closed. Unfortunately, for more than a decade the new, semi-private Gilbert School would be off-limits for the young scholars graduating from parochial schools.

In the 19th century, there were 88 privately endowed academies that served as their town’s high school. Today there are only three: Woodstock Academy, Norwich Free Academy and The Gilbert School in Winsted. As mentioned previously, William L. Gilbert attempted to partially fund a public high school in Winsted following the Civil War but was rebuffed. After his death in 1890, his will reflected his interest in education and the town’s young men and women. Prior to his death, he had founded and funded the William L. Gilbert Home for Friendless Children, which took in orphans and children whose parents could not support them. The children were educated in a school within the home. His will endowed a high school, The Gilbert School. The school was open to public school children who could pass its rigorous entrance exam (most high schools did have entrance exams; Gilbert did not drop that requirement until 1947). It was also open to children from the Gilbert Home. It was not open to children who had attended parochial school. The institution would not hire faculty who practiced the Catholic faith. This left Catholic children without the possibility of a secondary school education, which the town was obligated to provide. The town was able to overcome this codicil to the will in the first decade of the new century. The school was free to residents with no charge to the taxpayer — this caused the other public schools to close, saving the residents money.

The Gilbert School incorporated the best features of a classically-oriented curriculum following the lead of New England’s private academies. Not only did all the public high schools close, so did all the private schools in Winsted that offered secondary education. This highly regarded institute graduated many students bound for college and kept its requirements rigorous until the need for taxpayer financing in 1947 forced the school to drop its entrance examination policy, the last school in Connecticut to do so.

The influx of the additional students, due to the relaxation of the standards, caused the 1895 building across from the town green to become overcrowded, and thus began an intricate dance to accommodate these new students. This was complicated by the fact that students from Winchester would be attending a new elementary school in Winsted due to the closing of the Winchester Center School and the anticipated demolition of the now-closed Gilbert Home. The Home was pivotal, as it housed the excess elementary students who would be absorbed by the new Batchellor School in 1960. The Home, at least portions of it not being used by the elementary students, had to be demolished quickly to build the new Gilbert School, which was dedicated in 1959. Eventually, the former Gilbert School building across from the town green would become the home of the Northwestern Connecticut Community College in 1965.

If history is an indicator, Winsted will soon look to again streamline its school system, which includes three aging properties and a dwindling school population. The resolution will be further complicated by the growing expense of its Special Education population and hampered by a lack of money in the town coffers. A tightening of the partnership with the Gilbert School might be further explored to the town’s benefit, although there will certainly be resistance in some quarters to that as a solution. History dictates that one thing is a certainty: it will take time to make the public willing to accommodate itself to whatever the proposed plan entails. And, according to prior local historians, it will always take at least three votes and a great deal of bickering to get the job done!

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.”