The Center School building was a multipurpose building. It was the school and meeting hall. It served as the town’s book deposit of the town’s five schools. The school’s layout was a girls’ entrance on the right side and the boys’ entrance on the left. A large stone step was in front of each entrance. Upon entering either door was a cloak room. These rooms had shelves for lunch boxes, paper bags, and many hooks for clothing. When entering the Girls’ cloak room on the left, there was a double door to go upstairs to a large Town Meeting Hall. All town business was conducted there. Also court was held there, and the big hall was also a place for voting.

Just beyond the double door was a single door for book storage. The books were for the five schools in town. The book storage room was a narrow space with shelves that went back under the stairs that went to the meeting hall. Before school started each teacher from each school would come to the book storage and get the number of books they needed for each grade. At the end of the school year they returned the books. Across the room from the book storage on the outer wall was a small sink with a shelf. That shelf had a water container with a spigot and on the wall was a flat paper cup holder. From the sink was a small lead drain pipe that went through the floor and out over the top of the stone foundation and the water ran over the stones. That was the only plumbing in the building.

The boys’ and girls’ cloak rooms were the same size, each having one window and one white hanging light globe. In the boys’ room on the right before the door to enter the school room was an open doorway to the wood shed. The back wall met the back wall of the book room. The wood shed held a large amount of wood for the furnace in the school room. We entered the school room from both doors from the cloak rooms. There was a row of windows on each side of the school room. The back of the school room had no windows. Between the two entrance doors in the school room were blackboards, above them were large printed alphabets and written alphabets. There were four round posts holding up the ceiling in the school room. The most notable thing in the school room was a big wood burning furnace. It was located toward the back on the left side of the room.

The furnace was a large pot belly stove on four feet. It was surrounded by a metal jacket. The jacket had legs to keep it off the floor to let the cold air go up around the stove and become heat to warm the room. The teacher would come early in the morning and start the fire in the furnace. During the day she had the boys get wood from the wood shed to keep the fire going. On the top of the furnace was a large scalloped pan for water to get humidity in the air. This pan served an important function. It was used to heat hot drinks and soups. In wintry weather, it was important to make sure the pan was full of water before going home. The reason for having a full pan of hot water in the morning was to get the hot water to prime the large upright hand pump outside of the school building. During the deep snow and wintry weather, this was a big chore. A bigger boy put on his coat and hat and most important he needed heavy duty gloves. Without heavy duty gloves and you got wet hands and grabbed the large steel handle of the pump your hand would freeze to the handle. Then the pump was primed and you were getting extra water. You had to put water in the drinking container and extra water for the pan on top of the furnace. Water evaporates rapidly in the pan over the furnace when you keep a hot fire.

Everyone had to go outside for recess and lunch time for fresh air. We stayed inside when it rained. In the winter we were outside when it snowed with exception during strong winds and freezing temperatures. Children with colds or feeling sick stayed inside with the teacher’s discretion. When coming in from the snow there were many wet coats, hats, gloves or mittens. They were dried by putting them on the metal jacket around the furnace or on the chairs next to the jacket. Sometimes when things were close to the furnace they would start to scorch and were removed. Someone nearby could smell when it was happening.

We had outhouses in the back of the schoolhouse. Girls on the right side and the boys on the left side. They were separated by some distance. Winter time getting there presented several problems. In the winter, getting through deep snow and snow drifts. If the door was blown open and left open the wind would blow the snow in seat high and had to be shoveled out. Most of the time the broom would sweep the snow off the two-holer seat and floor so the door could be closed when the small children had to use the outhouses during deep snow. Some older students had to help them dress for the trip and dress themselves. They would shuffle their feet through the snow to make a path for the small student. If needed the outhouse was swept clear of snow. The smaller student needed help to dress down to use the facility. In the winter weather no one stayed in the outhouse very long.

In the 1930’s there weren’t buses to carry grade school students. Some students walked three or four miles to school. State Road 36 was plowed regularly. Town roads weren’t always plowed. In fact, most town roads were dirt roads. We had an older student who lived on South Bigelow Road. When his younger brother started first grade we had lots of deep snow. To get his little brother to school he carried him on the shoulders through a couple of cow pastures over stone walls with barbed wire up to Route 97 then on to Center School as that time there was only one school bus in town and that was to transport high school students to Willimantic.

George Howell