Cooley School c. 1870

208 Salmon Brook Street

Cooley Schoolhouse was located on East Street. Although the school house and the woodshed were in Granby, the outhouse was located in Southwick, MA.

This Building:

The Cooley School is the only remaining one-room schoolhouse in Granby that has not been renovated into a home or shop. It was built circa 1870 on the corner of East Street and Cooley Road in North Granby. At that location, the school and woodshed were in Granby, while the outhouse was in Southwick, Massachusetts.

The Cooley School was typical in that the front door opened into an entryway where children left their lunch pails on a shelf and hung their coats and hats on hooks. Here, too, was the water bucket and tin dipper for drinks shared by all.

A Bit More:

Rural Schools were ungraded, and the children just worked their way through a series of six readers. Teachers did not have to attend college. In 1896, the teacher’s salary for Cooley was $261 for the year, plus $18 for fuel and incidentals. That year, there were 17 students in the fall term.

After 1948, when the one-room schools in Granby were closed, the original furniture was auctioned off. The blackboard, however, remained intact, with some of the last teacher's writing.

In 1972, the school was given to the Salmon Brook Historical Society by Merrill Clark, whose mother had taught at the school. In 1980, the Society moved the school to its present location at 208 Salmon Brook Street.

A 19th-century schoolroom has been recreated, featuring a wood stove, a water bucket and dipper (shared by all), an 1855 Connecticut map, and the mandatory picture of George Washington, along with books and desks once used in Granby District Schools.

Children In A One-Room Schoolhouse.

Water Bucket Shared By All Children At School.

Cooley School Desk

Even More:

A 1912 newspaper article describes a field trip the 27 children took to Hartford under the direction of their teacher, Mrs. Mira G. Clark. Harvy Godard provided his automobile truck with improvised seats and straw on the floor. They were “packed in like sardines.” They left at 10:30, went to the depot where they enjoyed a basket lunch, and then visited the state capital and library, “where they were taken in charge of by State Librarian George Godard and were shown all that was worth seeing.” “It rained steadily all the way back, and a rather bedraggled party of children reached North Granby before dark, happy in spite of the rain.