Clio Logo
Nicknamed the Down Neck School, this building served the students of District number one in Orient Point. A classic one room school house, the Down Neck School has one large room with a small platform for the teacher at the front of the room. Today the school is used for changing exhibits by the Oysterponds Historical Society.

District #1 / Orient Point "Down Neck" School

District #1 / Orient Point "Down Neck" School

In 1873, the Down Neck building replaced the first Orient Point school house when the building was deemed to small and was not suited to expansion.  The building was last used in 1929 and was abandoned in 1930 when the district consolidated with Orient Village. The school was then sold to a local farmer who used it as a dormitory for farm workers. In 1938, the hurricane tore off the cupola from the building and the bell was lost. Ten years later the building was given to the historical society. It was moved from Orient Point area to the present site and the cupola was rebuilt. The bell was found in the hands of a resident of Shelter Island who traded the bell for another the same size.  

Antiquities, Society for the Preservation of Long Island's. Historic House Inventory - Southold Town. Survey for New York State , unpublished, 1976-1987.

Folk, Amy Kasuga. images of America, Oysterponds, East Marion and Orient. Charlestown, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2015.

Society, Oysterponds Historical. Historic Orient Village. Orient, New York: Oysterponds Historical Society, 1976.

"Town Historian's Files." Town Historian's Office, Southold, New York , n.d.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Author's collection