Researched and Written by Mary MacKenzie, Historian, Village of Lake Placid and Town of North Elba

 Schools and schooling have always had high priority in Lake Placid and it’s township North Elba.

    Our first settlers arrived in 1800, and by 1810 about 40 families were residents on the fringes of the present village. Even back in the pioneer setting, education was of prime importance. There was a log schoolhouse and Fanny Dart was the first teacher.

    The first colony was a success until 1817, when most of the inhabitants moved out, primarily due to the hardships and privations caused by “Year without A summer”, 1816. In that infamous year it snowed every month and crops died off, leading to near- starvation. For the next quarter of a century no more then ten families inhabited North Elba at any one time. Regardless, although there was no record of formal school building, there is ample evidence that the few children somehow received an excellent education.

    In the 1840s a new tide of immigration came to North Elba and by 1850 about 40 families again resided here. A schoolhouse, ever afterwards to be known as “the little ed schoolhouse: was built in 1848, as near as can be determined.  One of the first teachers was Henry Markham from nearby Wilmington who went to become the governor of California (1891-1895). “Little red” originally stood on the north corner of present Sentinel Road and Summer Street, just outside village limits. It was not abandoned as a school until 1915. In 1925 it was sold and moved to Johnson Avenue. It is still in existence. With few modifications it has served as a dwelling house from 1925 to the present.

    “Little Red” is surely one of our most historic buildings and should be preserved. It was much more then a seat of learning. For many years in the 19th century it was the only public building in town (not even a formal church existed) and, of necessity, it was used for almost all public gatherings, religious, social and civic. When North Elba was set from the town of Keene as a separate township, in 1850, our first town election was held there. It served as the North Elba Town Hall for many years. Here church services were held for several denominations and John Brown once gave a talk to the townspeople.

    

    An Early school, that may have predated “little red”, existed in the Averyille section. It stood on the site of the present abandoned old school building.  In 1888 it was moved to Frank Alford’s farm to be used as a shop, and the present school building was erected in its place. There is no evidence that the original school still stands somewhere in Averyille.  

 

    This school closed at the end of the term in June, 1932. The last teacher was Winifred Ryan. The building was sold at auction in 1936 to the Otis family, which used it for some years as a vacation cottage. For a long time it has been a part of the Malone family summer residence property. Sadly, it has long been neglected and now presents a very shabby and forlorn appearance.  An effort should be made at some level to restore this historic little building. There have been no additions made to it and the bell tower readily identifies it as an old rural schoolhouse.

   

In 1850, Gerrit Smith deeded to School District #4 a small triangle of land, on which the present building rests, opposite the entrance to the Adirondack lodge Road, on Route 73. The first schoolhouse there, built in the 1850’s, was log and was in use for some years. In 1886 it was torn  down and the present frame building was constructed on the same site. An addition was made to the west end in 1920. The school was closed in 1936. The last teacher was Katherine O’Rourke. In 1941 it was voted to sell the building, and was purchased by Walter and Gertrude Hare and turned into a private home. It is still in hare ownership. The building no longer resembles an old rural schoolhouse.

 

In 1879 the population in the Cascadeville section of North Elba had reached such proportions that school was needed. On March 30, 1879 Sabrina Goff deeded half an acre of land to school District #6 and a schoolhouse was built that year near the entrance to the Bob Run Road. Albert Goff then purchased the property and turned it into a vacation home, then a retirement home. It is still in the Goff family ownership. This little school has been lovingly preserved and is unmistakably an old country schoolhouse, bell tower and all.  

 

    A one-room schoolhouse existed in the hamlet of Ray Brook in very  early days, and is shown on the 1876 Gray township map of Essex County. This was not located on the site of the present school building but on the road leading to the present Federal prison off Route 86. It either burned down or was torn down. The present building of the Old Ray Brook Road off Route 86 was built 1903-1905 to accommodate the children of employees at the newly built Ray Brook State Hospital for tuberculosis patients and was in use for many years. After it closed as a school, it was utilized as a community center for Ray Brook residents. Charles Damp now owns it and occupies it as a home. He has made many improvements but has retained the bell tower so that the building still has the look of an old schoolhouse.

 

    It can be seen that five of North Elba’s original rural schools are still with us, covering a period of a century and a half of our history. Not many communities can make such a claim.

    

    By 1870, 349 people were living in North Elba, but there still was no village of Lake Placid. Only two families, those of Joseph Nash and Benjamin Brewster, were living in what is now the incorporated village. Both families had large farms bordering on Mirror Lake. Their children attended the little red schoolhouse far out in the township. In the 1870’s, Nash began to sell off his land, two hotels had been built and a village was taking shape along a Main Street that had once been Nash’s cow path. Growth was rapid. By 1890 the town population had tripled to 1117. Most of the newcomers were living in churches, hotels, and even a library, had made an appearance.

    The growing number of children begrudged the long walk out to the little red schoolhouse. In 1885 Mrs. May Stickney, the local librarian, started a private or “select” school in the second story of a large boathouse below Main Street on Mirror Lake, built and owned by Martin Brewster, and located on the site of the present “ Bear Haus” building at 23 Main Street. The second story of the boathouse was reached from the street by a long suspended walkway that led directly to the schoolroom door. Tuition was rather modest but the pupils had to furnish their own desks and chairs. Mrs. Stickney excelled in penmanship and expected the same of her students.

    By 1887 it had become very clear that only public school could adequately serve the expanding population. Many community members advocated a two-room school but only a one-room school was erected in 1888, directly across from the present Town Hall on Main Street. The first teacher was William Barker, and children from 6 to 16 attended.

    As had been predicted, the school soon ran out of space and had to be enlarged. The size of the addition is unknown but it seems to have been a modest one. The date is also in doubt but it most probably in 1895, the first Board of Education was organized, consisting of Clifford and Edwin Kennedy. William Almon Andrews was appointed Principal of he Union Free School in 1895 and served until 1899. C.M. Strock is said to have served as Principal in 1899 and 1900.

    Predictably again, this solution proved anything but adequate. Population continued to rise by leaps and bounds and the village was incorporated in 1900. Finally, at the beginning of the new century, the residents seriously addressed the problem of the education of its children. Accounts vary, but the most reliable one reports that it was 1900 when a large two-story wing was added on the north of the schoolhouse. It seems definite that it was 1902 when another large two-story wing was added on the south, and then a second story and a third story balcony room was added above the one-story original central building.

    The Village now had a rather imposing wooden structure known as the Lake Placid High School. Total enrollment was 335.

    The school was chartered as a High School in 1901 by the State Department of Education through the Board of Regents. Reportedly, one or two students, including Ida Billing Lockwood, received high school diplomas in 1901 but there were no graduation exercises. Formal commencement exercises began in 1902, when there were three graduates—A. Burton Davis, Roseanna Merill and Abe Feinburg. Graduation exercises were held for many years in the Town Hall, there being no auditorium in the school. William Alom Andrews apparently served as Principal again from 1901 to 1903.

    The years passed, the population of Lake Placid continued to rise, and the school again began to run out of space. As early as 1916 the School Board began to tackle the matter of an entirely new school to replace the wooden building that had become, in so few years, inadequate and antiquated. On March 27, 1916 the people of Lake Placid approved a bond issue of $125,000 to build “ the most elaborate, best equipped and highly priced public school in the Adirondack section”. There remained the matter of where the new school would be located. Seven different sties were proposed. For the next two years, community factions bickered and quarreled. It was finally agreed that the new school would be built on the rise land a few hundred feet back of the old wooden school.

    Nothing happened for several years, while other matters were ironed out and World War 1 intervened. During this period, for lack of space, the kindergarten was conducted in the Prunier block, just up the street, that once stood next to the Edge on Sports building.

    At last, in September of 1922 Lake Placid’s children moved into a splendid three-story yellow brick building, complete with auditorium and gymnasium, And all modern equipment and devices. There were 129 teachers and 658 students. H.G. Coons became Principal of the new school when it opened in 1922 and remained through June of 1931.

    The old wooden school was purchased by the Lake Placid Club. It was cut into three sections which were moved to the Club’s Westgate area down Park Street, opposite the present Village tennis courts. These sections were converted into living quarters for Club employees. In the form of these three sections, Lake Placid’s old wooden high school stood, amazingly, for another 76 years. The three buildings were torn down in 1998, only three years ago, when they were close to a century old.

    On July 2, 1930 centralization was adopted by the Board of Education and the school became Lake Placid Central School.

    In too short time, it happened again. The brand new school ran out of space. By the early 1930’s several rooms were rented in the North Elba Town Hall for second grade classes and the first grade was conducted in the basement of St. Eustace Episcopal Church.

    It was generally agreed that an addition should be put on the present building, one sizable enough to suffice far into the future. Architect H.O. Fullerton of Albany was hired. The addition went under construction in 1934 as a project of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s noted Public Works Administration, utilizing local labor. The addition was completed and opened in 1936. David G. Allen was Principal.

    Probably few in the community had envisioned the final result. Here was a building of which a community the size of Lake Placid could be very proud indeed. The new central section was of Palladian Neo-Classical composition and the new North Wing exactly matched the old school, now the South Wing, in all its fine details. The new school was declared a most successful example of additive transformation. It remains Lake Placid’s most beautiful and distinguished public building.

    The years passed and minor additions were put on the rear and north end. By the 1970s the school had again become seriously overcrowded. It was clear that only a separate elementary school could begin to solve the problems. Land was purchased on Old Military Road near its junction with Averyville Road and a fine elementary school was built in 1974. An addition was made in 1997.

    In 1999 the community approved a major program of additions and renovations at both schools, valued at $11.5 million. This great project was completed in the fall of 2001. It includes not only the physical changes but all manner of innovations in technology, courses of study and existing facilities to prepare Lake Placid’s children for success in the 21st century.

    Kindergarten and the first through fifth grades are housed in the elementary school on Old Military Road. The High School and the Middle School of sixth, seventh and eighth grades are housed in the large Central School building.