Dudley's Corner School House (1804-1921)

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Dudley's Corner School House, believed to have been built in 1804, is one of the only one-room schoolhouses in Maine standing in its original place with no renovations. The Dudley Corner School House is essential to the city of Skowhegan because it was the home of religion, the city’s early government, and education. The First Christian Church used this schoolhouse to hold church meetings until 1840. The town continued to use this building for meetings and elections until 1849. The Dudley Corner School House was used as a classroom until 1921 when consolidation efforts from the twentieth century began to rule out one-room schoolhouses.

Images

Plaque Placed on the Side of Dudley's Corner School House.

A photo of Dudley's Corner School House (n.d.).

A 2003 picture of Dudley's Corner School House. As you can see, the windows have been boarded up in recent years.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

Dudley’s Corner School House is a Greek Revival style one-room schoolhouse located at 5 Dudley Corner Road in Skowhegan, Maine. It is a single-story wood-frame structure sitting on granite slabs with an asphalt roof believed to have been built in 1804. The wooden frame is covered with severely weathered clapboards that have been renailed in recent years to help the weathering from getting worse, but it is assumed that it still has the original coat of red paint. There is a single brick chimney that peeks out from the north end of the building.

Although Dudley’s Corner School House was located on the outskirts of town, it became the center of education, government, and religion. The First Christian Church met in this schoolhouse until 1840. In 1835, the town records explain that the schoolhouse was rebuilt or renovated to its current stance, but it is unclear which. The schoolhouse continued to host town meetings and elections until 1849 and held classes until 1921. It was used annually by the Eunice Farnsworth Chapter, D. A. R., in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1932, the Eunice Farnsworth Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a bronze plaque on the schoolhouse’s side that stated, “all town meetings but two 1828-1849.” In recent years, it has been used by the Boy Scouts and the Lion’s Club. Today, it is in question to restore and preserve the structure and use it for community functions or to understand the area’s history.

There were plenty of one-room schoolhouses spread across the rural landscape of Maine during the nineteenth and early twentieth-century Maine. This is because every town had its own schoolhouse, dividing themselves into school districts. Consolidation efforts from the twentieth century began to rule out the one-room schoolhouses. By 1960, only 226 schools in Maine were being taught in one-room schoolhouses. As of 2002, the number of schools dropped to only a handful. Although by this point, it wasn’t being used as a school, Dudley’s Corner School House is the only one that hasn’t been moved or remodeled. This, along with the fact that it showed an impact on Skowhegan’s early town government, proves its significance to be added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 2002.

Sources

"Dudley Corner School House | Skowhegan, ME." Skowhegan, ME - Official Website | Official Website. Accessed August 2, 2020. https://www.skowhegan.org/431/Dudley-Corner-School-House.

National Park Service. "Dudley's Corner School House- National Register of Historic Places Registration Form." Last modified 2002. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/02000787_text.

"Skowhegan." Maine: An Encyclopedia. Last modified July 10, 2020. https://maineanencyclopedia.com/skowhegan/.

Image Sources(Click to expand)