The Marble Schoolhouse

The provision of education for children was first codified in Eastchester (now Mount Vernon) by the original settlers who migrated from Connecticut in 1664. It wasn't until January 25, 1726, that a town meeting was held to approve the building of a school. In 1835 this building was torn down to make way for the Marble School House.

Children from northern Mount Vernon, Bronxville, Tuckahoe, and New Rochelle attended this school until the Marble School was moved to its current location in 1869. The school board reported that the school would be moved to land owned by Thomas Elliot and that a new school would be built in Bronxville. The second school building was named Chester Hill; with two buildings available, students from the Eastern portion of the town attended Marble House. In 1884 both schools combined,but by the end of that school year, the Marble Schoolhouse closed.

By 1888, the Marble school was transferred to the Kloepfer family; it was vacant until 1952 when Valentine Kloeper, the son of the owner, sold the schoolhouse to the Town of Eastchester along with a small piece of land in order to preserve the building. The Eastchester Historical Society purchased the building in 1959 to restore it as a one room school.

Built of roughly cut stone the Marble schoolhouse stands as the only school built of locally quarried Tuckahoe marble. Originally located in a rural setting, this one story structure is now surrounded by residential properties.

When the school was reconstructed, an addition provides visitor accommodations and storage. At the rear of the structure is the library of the Eastchester Historical Society, an inclusion built by the architect James C. Picone and constructed in 1982. The school is a museum today and has a year-round program offered to students described as A Day in a Victorian School.

1.Bianchi, Harriet H. "Restoration of Eastchester Old Marble School." The Westchester Historian (Westchester) April 1961. Vol 37 ed, 2 sec, 46-49.

2.Burtnett, Bertrand G. "The Old Marble School at Union Corners." The Quarterly Bulletin of the Westchester Historical Society (White Plains) January, 1933. Vol.9 ed, No.1 sec, 11-13.

3.National Register of Historic Places Register Form, Marble Schoolhouse, July 06, 2005, Westchester County Historical Society Archive, Accessed October 11, 2020.