In 1821, in beautiful handwriting, Anson Howard deeded over a small parcel of property on what is now South Bigelow Road, to the “South School District in the first school society in the Town of Hampton,” to be used as land for a schoolhouse. He asked for no money, only “for the consideration of having all the manure that shall be made by the schoolhouse that now stands, or a schoolhouse that may be put (there).” Since Mr. Howard (presumably the Howard after which Howard Valley was named) lived in Ohio at the time of the conveyance, one wonders why he wanted to make that interesting trade. But since I’ve always thought that the current building, known as ABC House since Vic Wolmer purchased it from the McAlpines in 1970, was built in 1833, that means that there might have been another schoolhouse there in 1821—or else the town waited 12 years to build something. The school was closed by at least 1944 because records indicate it was owned by Harold and Violet Chick, who also owned a large piece of property behind it. As early as 1866 there was a house directly behind the schoolhouse, on the old Nipmuck Path, which is now an abandoned Town Road, that is listed on old map’s as “Mrs. Green’s house.” You can still see the foundation—I visit it often and retrieve fun artifacts like tin milk pails, portion of the iron legs of school desks, bed springs, etc. I’m sure that Mrs. Green was a teacher at the Howard Valley School. The kids could use the road to get to school from Route 97. (When Margaret Easton said in the previous issue of the Gazette that there wasn’t much land to play on so they had to walk up and down the road, I think she was talking about this road, not South Bigelow.) But I do think that at one point, up the hill, there was a school garden. The property is one big sand vein—except in a spot that when the brush was cleared is quite sunny, and the soil is rich and practically rock-free. There’s another foundation—much older—on the southeast border of the property, next to what was the original South Bigelow road, about eight feet higher than it is now. I believe this is the old homestead and barn of the Shaw family.

Since Howard Valley is one of the oldest parts of town I have wondered if the ABC House was the first schoolhouse. There’s very little information about what went on in the schools—all the information seems to be in the land records or in the recollections of students who went there—so I don’t really know. I have the photo of the class of 1905, and the photo of the schoolhouse in 1936.

The Chicks, after conducting renovations (new windows and wood flooring), used it as a summer place and sold it to the McAlpines in around 1957. When Vic bought it, it still had an outbuilding (the woodshed and outhouse) about 10 feet from the door. He and his son Dave just moved the whole thing, bolted it onto the schoolhouse, and that became (and still is) the bathroom and kitchen.

The construction of the ABC house is a little weird—half post and beam, half not-so-much. It was never built for anyone to live in; it is sturdy in some places (the huge mortise and tenon joints in the roof rafters are phenomenal) and really awful in others, and of course has undergone several major restorations in its life. I remember back in the 80s when Jim Spignisi lived there, the woods came right to the back wall—the schoolhouse was literally built into a bank. So of course that completely rotted out and Steve Laume replaced the whole back end. But what was cool about it was that we could hear the woodcocks in the morning right outside the window.

The blackboard is still in the schoolhouse, as well as the built-in cabinet where the teacher kept all her supplies. Vic created a bedroom in the southwest corner, so the blackboard had to be moved to another wall, but I still use it. There was never a bell here; the teacher used a hand bell to call the students. About ten years ago a friend told me the place needed a bell on a pole, and gave me a bell, so I put it up. I bought the schoolhouse from Vic in 2004 I think, then sold it in 2013, then bought it back this past April because I missed it. And I’m not surprised anymore when I meet someone and they ask me where I live and I tell them and they say “Oh, we used to live there.” It’s been a good home to a lot of people. I’m also asked if I ever see or hear ghosts. Nope. Critters, wind, rustling leaves, but no lost souls.  Now, further up the hill is a different matter, near the Cohantic Ledges where Elizabeth Shaw hid her baby, hoping the Nipmucks would find it and take care of it … but that’s another story, and pre-dates the schoolhouse by at least 60 years.

Penny Newbury