WAINSCOTT SCHOOL
By
Mary S. Petrie
THE FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE
The old schoolhouse was burning, leaping flames quickly consuming oak and shingle as sparks lit up the night sky. Osborns, Hands, Strongs and Edwardses, all Wainscott hurried towards the blaze. But in the early 19th century there were no fire hydrants and no Fire Department was at the ready. The hastily organized bucket line would have had little chance of smothering the flames.
This first schoolhouse at Wainscott seems to have been built about 1730. The best evidence for this is the recollection of Judge Henry Hedges writing in his "Memories of a Long Life," in 1909. The Judge was born in 1817 and lived for the first fourteen years of his life in the Topping house just across the road from Wainscott School. He writes:
“In the night about 1826 or 7 the old Wainscott schoolhouse was in a blaze. It must have been nearly a hundred-years old, perhaps more. Full three generations of youth there learned their letters”
Today's school stands very near to the site of that first one, a board proudly proclaiming "Est. 1730": a date which appears to have been taken from the Judge's writings. Despite a search in the County Record Office, Riverhead, the earliest official written record of Wainscott School so far found comes in a short sentence in the "Journal of the Trustees of the Freeholders & Commonalty of East Hampton Town 1772-1807." In the year 1796 on June 30th "it was agreed for the town to pay to Wainscott people £12 towards their schoolhouse" - equivalent to approximately $5,000 today. If Judge Hedges is correct, this money was for repair work to a building already there, rather than for a new school. It seems unlikely that we will ever know how this money was spent, or indeed if it was ever spent at all.
The 1796 date comes just a year after the State legislature passed an experimental act to establish schools with public funding. That may have been the spur to build a "proper" school. Judge Hedges describes the first schoolhouse as a community centre: the village seine net was stored in the loft, and it served as the first church. "Three generations at 5 o'clock meetings had worshipped therein. It was hallowed by the prayers of sincere and humble worshippers. Its walls had echoed and re-echoed with sacred hymn and psalm Centre of primary instruction, centre of seine meetings, centre of religious worship it had been an institution of enduring benefit and blessing." So this first schoolhouse was church, school and Town hall.
Wainscott was settled about 1668, after John Osborn was granted land there. For many years he had had charge of East Hampton's dry cattle herd, driving it to and from the village's grazing land at Wainscott. Much of the land in those days was covered in thick forest - rich in game, a larder for early settlers, but a place of danger too: pits were dug to trap wolves. Survival rather than formal schooling was the order of the day. Boys were taught to tend livestock, to plant and sow and harvest, to fish and hunt, to chop and stack wood. Girls were expected to cook and wash and mend at their mother's side. Instruction in the first schoolhouse followed the rhythm of the seasons - classes held mostly in winter and probably not at all during harvest or springtime sowing. A hundred years later, by the late 18th century, boys were still spending much of their time on farm chores, although by then well-to-do families could afford both house and farm servants. Their children had the chance to go to Dame Schools held in private houses, and after that, from 1785 onwards, to Clinton Academy. For many children, however, there was no such option until 1812 when the State passed a law providing money for common schools.
The 1730 building was raised by communal effort -volunteers cutting wood from the nearby forest and local men giving their time and skills. The land on which it was built most probably belonged to the Town Trustees. The East Hampton Patent issued in 1686 by Governor Thomas Dongan – often referred to as the "Dongan Patent" - confirmed the Trustees’ jurisdiction over all unalloted land, i.e. land which had not been granted by the British King's representatives to early settlers. Over the years the trustees sold off most of the land; today the last vestiges of the old ruling gives them authority over bodies of water and some remaining parcels of land formerly unattractive for farming or settlement. Halsey's map of 1750 shows Wainscott schoolhouse built on a triangle of land around the apex of Wainscott pond. Before modem drainage techniques, and before the tip of the pond was cut off by the building of the "sandy bridge" of Main Street, the area would have been much more marshy, and prone to flooding. The Judge remembers ice-skating on frozen floods in winter; today's children still climb six or seven steps to the schoolhouse door, the classroom perched well above waters which threaten after heavy storms.
Whatever mystery surrounds the original ownership of the land was dispelled in 1876 when the Town Trustees transferred by quitclaim deed their interest in the property to the School Trustees. Further regularization took place in 1931 when Morgan Topping, sole Trustee of Common School District No. 2, agreed with the Cemetery Trustees to an exchange of parcels of ground whereby the boundaries of the respective strips of land were straightened.
There is no illustration of the first schoolhouse, but Judge Hedges has left us a graphic description. He writes of the full rigged whale ship carved on the southern wall, and of myriad initials cut into the boards; of the looming shadow of the seine net high in the rafters, of cracks and crevices where mice and birds nested, of a dark, terrifying cupboard where boys were left to repent their misdeeds. A place of excitement and some terror for a young child.
The fire which destroyed the old building was started deliberately. A Wainscott lad, "poor crazy Tom," carried a torch from his home - the ancient shingles and boards must have flared up easily. He took the schoolmaster's chair out into the bushes of the graveyard and sat in the night and watched it burn.
THE SECOND SCHOOLHOUSE
The horse team leaned into their harness, pulling hard to move the schoolhouse up the incline of Wainscott Main Street. The little group - horses, building, men and onlookers – would have been visible from afar. It was 1884 and part of Wainscott was wide grazing land, not long since a nursery for cavalry horses destined for the Civil War. A new school had just been built – so there was no need any longer for this little wooden building on the triangle of land by Hollow Road.
This second schoolhouse had risen quickly from the ashes of the first. Little has been written about it: Judge Hedges merely comments that it was a better building than its predecessor. Fortunately, however, a picture of the school survives; looking unkempt and forlorn, it had probably by this time ceased being used as a school. For five decades, it had been the seat of learning in Wainscott, until, in the early 1880s, when something bigger and better was required, it was bought by David P. Osborn. He it was who moved the little schoolhouse east to his home on Main Street near the Georgica Association. Huge trucks and powerful equipment move houses today, but the horses which pulled the second schoolhouse to its final resting place probably had a smoother journey. The animals didn't have to stop while
electricity and telephone cables were taken down and replaced! According to Amy Bessford, writing in the East Hampton Star in 1895, the building was used as a dwelling for many years; a local guess is that the site was that occupied today by the two railroad cabooses on the present Lauder property. But all trace of the second Wainscott schoolhouse is gone.
electricity and telephone cables were taken down and replaced! According to Amy Bessford, writing in the East Hampton Star in 1895, the building was used as a dwelling for many years; a local guess is that the site was that occupied today by the two railroad cabooses on the present Lauder property. But all trace of the second Wainscott schoolhouse is gone.THE THIRD SCHOOLHOUSE
For two centuries Wainscott had quietly prospered. Untamed land became pasture and arable field. The Osborn tanning pit was replaced as an industry by carpentry, which used the fresh waters of Wainscott pond to soak logs for pliable boards. Milk and vegetables supplied an increasing South Fork population. By the 1880s there was enthusiasm and money enough for a grand new school. The third of the schoolhouses is well documented and remembered clearly by former pupils. Judging from the fulsome press reports, it was a building Wainscott folk took pride in. A newspaper clipping describes it:
"This house... is built in Queen Ann style, after designs by Henry M. Congdon, architect of New York; it is one story high, has an irregular roof, with an elevated belfry, in which hangs a fine, large bell, with a remarkably clear tone, from the celebrated McShane foundry of Baltimore. Numerous windows in all sides of the building give ample light within even on the darkest days. As one enters the doorway on the south front there is an alcove on either side, plentifully supplied with hooks for the hats and wraps of the school children; from each of those vestibules a door leads into the schoolroom. It is impossible to resist exclaiming, how handsome! The walls and ceiling - wainscoted and ceiled with pine, ash, and walnut, tastefully interspersed with neat moldings, the narrow pine boards of the floor, all bright, clean and shining with the polish of the varnish - are in harmony with the cherry and ash desks and seats, with their cast iron mountings.
Two handsome chandeliers, pendant from the ceiling, light the room almost too brightly when used in the evening. A cabinet organ near the teacher's platform, is a useful adjunct, and also serves to accompany the singing when religious exercises are held on Sabbath, and other evenings. Blackboards, a handsome clock, Webster's Quarto Dictionary, and other necessary appliances are all here. A handsome self feeding stove stands in the centre of the room, and has kept it warm and comfortable through the coldest weather of the past winter. Altogether it is probably the best school house and the most complete in its appointments, of any in the town.
While, however, we have thus detailed the merits of the model building, to our notion, one of the best things in connection with it, still remains to be told. It was not obtained in the ordinary way, by tax levy from a constituency not altogether united. The money to build and equip it was raised by the free will offerings of the people of Wainscott. It's a voluntary expression of their concern, for the best interests of their children, and in this respect, is a noble example to other school districts. There was no holding back in the contributions, while special commendation is due Mr. D. E. Talmage, the school's trustee of this district, to Messrs. Osborn, Edwards, Topping, Strong and others, for their active interest: those, both well to do, and in very moderate circumstances, united in contributing what they could. As a practical, permanent result, Wainscott school house stands an ornament and an honor to the village, of which it and the town may both be proud.
The school building in all its glory continued the tradition of serving as village meeting place - but not for long. In 1908 the Bridgehampton School was moved to Main Street and became Wainscott Chapel. From then on the Sunday School and Evening Prayer meetings were held there. The following year, perhaps to celebrate the fact that the schoolhouse was truly just that, Morgan Topping cut out a tall straight tree from Pine Swamps and shaped the 50-foot flag pole which still stands today.
This third school, although larger and warmer than the second, still lacked modern conveniences. There was no electricity and no inside plumbing. Drinking water was fetched in a pail from a nearby house, often shared by a friendly dog on the way over. Bathrooms for boys and girls were located in an outbuilding referred to gleefully by the children as "the potties". "The potties' can be seen today about half way down Hollow Road on the southwest slope, a quaint vine-entangled little shack used as housing for farm workers after the 1938 hurricane, and later for workers helping with the potato harvest. Warmth in the schoolhouse depended on the teachers' ability to light and stoke a fire. Parents were responsible for providing a stack of firewood or coal, but the teacher was expected to take out the ashes and to lay the fire each morning before classes began.
Teaching was of necessity very formal. Eight grades were accommodated at Wainscott School so that class work covered a wide range of age and ability. Pupils walked to and from school, walking home for lunch if nearby. The Wainscott Ladies Sewing Society provided a welcome hot lunch initially one day a week and later monthly. This tradition is carried on today; once a year in springtime, the entire school walks up Main Street to the Chapel in their "twos", where the Ladies dispense hot dogs, beans, chocolate chip cookies and other delights.
Sometime in the 1920s running water was brought into the school and chemical toilets; but by the end of the decade it was decided that proper bathrooms were needed and that the pot-bellied stove really should be replaced by central heating. So this schoolhouse too was moved away, bought by Charles Schwenk. It can be seen today just past the junction of Hollow Road and Townline Road, empty and in need of paint.
THE FOURTH SCHOOLHOUSE
Playtime was really fun - who gets to play on a building E site nowadays? In the early 1930s, as America slipped into the Depression years, hammering and sawing could be heard in the school yard. North of, and close to the white-boarded school, was rising today's shingle-clad building. Because the low-lying site was prone to flooding, a half-basement was built to house the new furnace, so the schoolhouse is reached by climbing seven red- painted concrete steps. The steps display pumpkins at Thanksgiving, flowers in springtime. They were used as a platform for concerts in the 1980s, and today serve as "time out" seats for anyone who misbehaves at playtime. Inside the building is one big schoolroom. On either side, at the south end, two single bathrooms were installed, leading from small cloakrooms, one of which held a big working sink. The schoolhouse cost $9,000 to build and was occupied in 1931. School Trustee Stanley Strong reported that the debt was paid off in just three years.
With the new building came other changes. Grades 5-8 were sent to East Hampton High School - most pupils in the early days making the journey by horse and wagon - and Wainscott school settled happily into teaching grades 1-4. Since then roll numbers have fluctuated between 6 and over 20. A janitor, Mr. Tony D'Andrea, came to look after the furnace and to help with general maintenance. Some things stayed the same; the Ladies Sewing Circle continued to provide regular hot lunches and the children were frequent visitors to Chauncy Osborn's general store, handily sited just across Hollow Road. Until the 1950s he dispensed sodas, candy and other goodies, and was a friend to several generations of Wainscott children.
Nowadays, no-one goes home for lunch. One of the cloakrooms serves as a kitchen with a microwave oven providing hot snacks at lunch and the odd cup of hot chocolate for any child throughout the day feeling hungry or in need of comfort. School buses ferry pupils to and from school; swings appeared in the
playground, and later a seesaw, a jungle gym, and a basketball court. Today the little school room bulges with books, educational toys and puzzles. The ubiquitous photocopier nestles in the other cloakroom, which serves as the school office; new computer begins the six year-olds' education for the 21st Century. Contrasting this technology, Mollie the guinea pig's cage, the old upright piano and the teachers' rocking chair, vie for space among groups of tables and chairs. All available wall space is covered with the pupils' projects, photographs of the last school outing, writing alphabets, maps, flags of the world and the daily calendar of dates, weather and puzzle pattern. With today's demands the building seems ever more cramped. Plans are afoot to re-arrange the internal space and to build a storage shed in the school yard.
Wainscott school is a link with the past - it is the last of the truly one-roomed schoolhouses in New York state. So far it has managed to adapt to the increasing pace of educational change. Certainly the atmosphere generated by learning together in a small group of children of differing ages is something special, and is not to be lightly swept aside by the demands of progress. Peg Zilborg, former School Trustee and teacher herself, when asked about the school replied "Wainscott School? - It's what education is all about!" Many would agree.
The list of teachers is far from complete. Over time flood waters in the basement took their toll on archives – ruined documents were thrown out, and with them the names of those dedicated persons who struggled to inculcate the beginnings of wisdom into the hearts and minds of long-gone Wainscotters. In the early days, teachers often stayed only a short time, perhaps teaching one term and then moving on; occasionally, an older pupil would temporarily fill a vacancy. Until the middle of this century, when automobiles and higher salaries allowed greater mobility, it was the custom for the schoolteacher to board nearby. Most of the old Wainscott families had at one time or another a schoolteacher living with them and woe betide any misbehavior at home if you were the unlucky pupil whose home also housed your teacher. At least two romances blossomed between a young "Miss" and local lad. In the 1870s, Louisa Halsey Edwards married John Osborn, school trustee at the time. They met when she sought him out to request a new broom for the schoolroom. Much more romantic was his proposal: during a game of anagrams he passed her the letters which spelt out "I love you". Tall, red-headed Mrs. Barnes arrived in the 1930s as Miss Phelps, but quickly became Mrs. Noel Barnes - a bit too quickly for some local opinion!
Writing of his teachers, in the 1820s, Judge Hedges conjures up pictures of stern and worthy men, reminiscent of a Dickens novel. John Cooper was "profound in scholarship, stern in discipline, exacting in requirement, he ruled the school as rigorously as an army controlled by martial law. No trifling was allowed, no illness overlooked, no offense unpunished." Robert Hedges was "elastic, intact, humorous in mood, unrivaled in wit." In Wainscott Dumplings Alice Hand writes more fondly of her teachers: Mr. Thornton was the best-loved teacher of her schooldays. "He was a strict disciplinarian, but could also play freely with his pupils, turning the rope for the girls skipping games & joining the boys in baseball." Mr. Dunn brought his love of fine poetry to the classroom and schooled the children in recitation; Mr. Thomson concentrated on the basics so that in his time Wainscott children easily passed the Regents Preliminary exams. Amy Osborn Bassford, writing in the East Hampton Star, remembers one waspish New England spinster teaching around 1900, who was nick-named "the spring-tailed snapping turtle" from her habit of rising swiftly from her desk and pouncing on anyone who dared to misbehave.
Looking back, after a hundred years, one can feel a certain sympathy for the snapping turtle. Wainscott school then took grades one through eight; it can't have been easy for one young lady to control sturdy fourteen year-old boys, let alone teach writing, reading and counting across such a wide range of ages and ability. Mrs. Barnes is remembered to this day for her length of rubber hose kept handy to deal with the boys - girls got off much more lightly with a stroke of the ruler. Her final resort was to send an unruly pupil to Mr. Topping. For many years School Trustee, his strong right arm was much feared. Mrs. Mansir (1944-1971) holds the record this century for length of service. She is remembered as a very strict teacher, but fair, although she was apparently much harder on any boy who misbehaved than on the girls. One form of punishment - having pupils sit in a metal trash bin - did raise some disquiet among parents. But she pushed the bright ones and refused to let the slower learners relax, and many remember her with gratitude.
Mrs. Judith Paris swept away the regimented rows of desks and ushered in a more relaxed atmosphere. Grades were allotted colors and became grade 1 - the red team -, grade 2 - the yellow team -, grade 3 - the green team -, and grade 4 - the blue team. Pupils could choose where they sat all day. Those who arrived early got first choice and there was always a rush to pick the desk in the office or in the library corner where it seemed as if that pupil had his or her own room. About this time, the teacher’s aide was appointed to the staff.
Ask any pupil who attended Wainscott school over the last ten or so years for their favorite memories, and chances are they'll say "Fridays" or "music day". Apart from pizza lunch Friday really means "Pierson Hildreth day". A small quiet man, with an amazing collection of ties, Mr. Hildreth has been bringing his own brand of fun and learning to Wainscott for almost twenty years. When initially asked to go there, Mr. Hildreth, who had been working with B.O.C.E.S., declined, but luckily he changed his mind for he has the rare ability to bring out the very best in every child.
His piano is cluttered with musical gadgets - the latest a performing froggy orchestra - and with a wealth of strange instruments which give forth noises only children can make and enjoy. His hands move over the keys, but he is turned to the children as he coaxes and cajoles the group around him to sing, and make rhythm. Over the years, Mr. Hildreth has built up for the school a good collection of well-made instruments - an auto harp and temple blocks, slide whistle, siren whistle, chimes and maracas, snare drums and agogo bells; enough in any case so that no child feels left out.
There is a tradition at Wainscott of "putting on a show". It may have begun as a thank-you to the Ladies Sewing Society for their hot lunches; it may have been just for parents. In the 1940s, the show was held in the Chapel at Christmas and the "band" was made up of sticks and cymbals and spoons - simple instruments but a joyful noise. When roll numbers fell, the show still went on, but was held at the schoolhouse instead. In the springtime too, chairs were placed under the trees and the pupils performed a concert for parents and friends on the school's steps. In the 1980s, as numbers increased, the Christmas show returned to the Chapel. Nowadays, Wainscott children take their show to Guildhall where, every February, the elementary schools of the area are given the freedom of a professional stage to entertain parents and each other.
Many Fridays are spent in preparation for the show. It is all part of the learning process - recall of words, keeping and counting the beat, singing and dancing, art work in costume making and poster painting and, perhaps most important of all, finding the confidence to perform.
In his early days at Wainscott, Mr. Hildreth took aside pupils for individual tuition on guitar, piano or clarinet, but greater numbers today prohibit this. Nonetheless any child who shows special interest or ability is encouraged and many have taken up instruments outside school. Pierson Hildreth and head teacher Darralyn Donatuti make a good team. She declares he can take anything a child has written and put it to music. He asserts that she gives a child the confidence to be uninhibited.
Darralyn Donatuti continues the traditions of one-room school teaching with energy and skill. Woven into the daily building blocks of learning - math, writing, reading - are lessons on all aspects of planet Earth and on our own Wainscott environment. Strawberries and pumpkins are picked, soups made from local vegetables, insects in the playground minutely examined. At some point in each day the pace is always slackened and pupils group around the rocking chair for a story - free rein given to imagination. Later pupils may write up their own stories taking turns on the computer. At "group" time too, children learn the principles of democracy. Decisions are taken by a vote of thumbs up or thumbs down, and day to day problems, such as playtime disputes, are discussed and settled communally. Paints, glitter and glue abound - after lunch when concentration begins to ebb. Mrs. Donatuti becomes animated when discussing her teaching philosophy. "I want each child to feel good about him or herself she says, "we always emphasize the positive – everyone has a talent". Although for core teaching the children are grouped by grade level, for many activities they divide into co-operative groups. The elder children are expected to help the younger ones. At Wainscott school the phone is answered by a pupil, the mail is sorted, the garbage taken out, the flag raised and lowered. Taking responsibility and caring for others are high on Darralyn Donatuti's list of qualities to be fostered.
Within a farming community, Wainscott school has always been a part of the village. The families of children - past and present - have traditionally volunteered help of all sorts. Throughout the year those with skills in art and crafts and cooking share these in the classroom; grandparents who have voyaged afar share their experience. Presently the Christmas show gets help with choreography, costumes and props. Others give of their valuable time transporting pizzas to school or children on trips - it's always been that way. And it is what has given this little institution some of the qualities that students remember all their lives,
The schoolhouse staff now includes Julie Burke, who joined in 1996 as teachers' aide, Alexandra Patterson, who helps a short time each day with reading, and speech therapist Donna Halsey, gym teacher Robert Claps, Carrie Hofer school nurse, and James Schmitz, school psychologist. On Mondays Mary Petrie helps as a volunteer.
Today's Wainscott school is a far cry from that of Judge Hedges' day. Many more adults are involved, allowing a less rigid code of pupil behavior. The classroom is often noisy and at times full of movement - it is hard at first glance to perceive the order and purpose which are there. Different times with different ways- who's to say which is best, who's to say what the next two hundred years will bring?
ADMINISTRATION
The year following 1812, New York state passed a law for the support of common schools. East Hampton town voted to raise by tax, for the upkeep of those schools, a sum equivalent to that allotted to the town by the state. Schooling was not yet compulsory, and almost all teachers were men. Two commissioners of schools were elected, and six school inspectors. Eight districts were laid out between Wainscott and Montauk, with Wainscott becoming school district number 2.
Wainscott school is administered by a sole trustee, a clerk and a treasurer, and by a district supervisor. Again Wainscott is unique in that it is the only school in the state whose board consists of a single trustee. Over the years, members of most local families have served as trustee; for the past two years, Mrs. Donna Moss has carried on that honorable tradition. Mrs. Nancy McCaffrey has been clerk for thirty-five years, Mrs. Betty Wilson, treasurer for thirty years, and Charles Lauer, in his ninth year as supervisor, makes sure that education regulations and laws are adhered to. Although the budget and minutes are submitted to B.O.C.E.S. - Board of Co-Operative Education Services - at West Hampton Beach, decisions are made locally. The trustee is elected yearly at the May budget meeting and he or she nominates the clerk and treasurer who also stand for election each year. In 1994 a new "Compact for Learning" envisioned at state level led to the setting up of "site based teams" attached to each school. The teams meet "on site" - at school - and are made up of teachers, supervisor, parent representatives and two people recruited from the local area. The team has no role in managing the school, but seeks only to raise the level of education provided to make it meaningful for next century's work environment and to improve student performance.
HURRICANE
With little warning on the morning of September 21, Wainscott was struck by "the 1938 hurricane." Not named, as they are today, the storm tore across Long Island and the New England states, inflicting huge amounts of damage. The statistics make grim reading: 600 lives lost, around 85,000 houses and barns destroyed or damaged, over 2,000 boats lost, 275 million trees uprooted.
Sadly the beautiful elms lining Wainscott Main Street were among the casualties: only one remains standing today, still bent by the force of that furious wind. During the morning, as the wind and rain increased, power and light failed and the waters of both Georgica and Wainscott ponds rose rapidly, ocean waves breaking over bar and dunes. In the schoolhouse, Mrs. Barnes was in charge - but becoming more and more uneasy as the day wore on. She determined to send the children home early and, realizing they could never withstand the wind's force on their own, decided to start calling parents. The nearest telephone was across Hollow Road in Chauncy Osborn's store. James McCaffrey and Paul Dankowski were sent there to summon help. The two managed to reach the shop, but the wind was so strong neither they nor those inside were able to open the door. The boys sought the safety of the big wooden bread box which stood beside the store to hold bread delivered early in the morning. They climbed in and cowered there until the storm began to ease. By that time, parents had begun to arrive at school. Jim McCaffrey was taken home by his father. They went to look at the waters of Georgica pond surging high onto the meadows near his home, leaving boats and debris as a wonderful playground for him when the storm had passed. David Osborn was "rescued" by his uncle who brought him and other children safely through the turmoil of Main Street. Water was swirling around the schoolhouse, and was two to three inches on the sidewalk; at one time, the wind blew so strongly they all lay down until the gust had passed. Roger Walker and his sister struggled home across the Osborn farm fields. A particularly strong gust whipped Florence's hat from her head: it was never seen again. Wainscott pupils at East Hampton High School didn't get home until about eight o'clock that night - slowly navigating roads strewn with trees and other debris. But the little schoolhouse withstood the storm. Apparently, not a shingle was lost – more importantly, not a child was hurt.
