Old Stone Schoolhouse, Fairhaven, MA

Learn about school days of long ago. . .

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Built in the Oxford Village neighborhood of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, in 1828, the Old Stone Schoolhouse was the town's first school built under the district school system.

Restored in the early 1970s, the schoolhouse will open to the public on Saturdays in June, July and August to teach about New England school days of long ago. The school is also available for class field trips by appointment.

The Old Stone Schoolhouse is located at 40 North Street, Fairhaven, MA. For further information, call the Fairhaven Office of Tourism at 508-979-4085 or email Fairhaventours@aol.com.

A Visit to the Schoolhouse

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When you visit the Old Stone Schoolhouse, you will be greeted by a costumed school master or mistress who will talk to you about the educational system in the 1800s. You’ll learn about a typical school day in a classroom where children from ages four to sixteen would learn together.

The schoolhouse contains old photographs of students and teachers, a collection of antique school books, slates and writing instruments, and other items used in one-room schools.

Children may sit at desks, look at old-fashioned school books and write on a slate with chalk or a slate pencil. Older children may practice writing with a brass nibbed pen dipped in ink. They will be taught about discipline in the classroom and the sorts of punishments that resulted from misbehavior. They may be asked to recite a short poem or some arithmetic facts from memory.

There are also some period games on hand, so youngsters can engage in schoolyard play such as rolling a hoop, playing jacks, hopscotch, jumping rope and more.

PLEASE NOTE: The Old Stone Schoolhouse has no electricity and no running water. There are no restroom facilities on site.

Hours & Directions

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Hours:

In June, July and August, the schoolhouse is open on Saturdays from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.

The building may also be opened for group tours and class field trips by appointment. For more information, call the Fairhaven Office of Tourism at 508-979-4085 or email Fairhaventours@aol.com.

Directions:

From Interstate 195, take Exit 18 to Route 240. At first traffic light, bear right onto Bridge Street. Travel on Bridge Street to the second set of lights. Turn right on Route 6. At fourth set of traffic lights, just past Fairhaven High School, turn right on Main Street. Take the fifth right onto North Street and continue one block. The schoolhouse is on the left.

School History

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Old Stone Schoolhouse, Fairhaven, MA, 1880s

WHEN THE TOWN OF FAIRHAVEN was incorporated in 1812, it was divided into 19 school districts, each of which was responsible for building its own schoolhouse and hiring a teacher. The first district to build a school was Oxford Village, where this stone schoolhouse was constructed in 1828 upon land owned by John Taber. It measures 20½ by 36 feet and cost $520.01 to build.

Children from 4 to 16 attended class at the Oxford Village School for 10¼ months a year, with breaks in the spring and fall during planting and harvesting time. The school day was long, usually from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 or 5:00 p.m., with an hour off for lunch at midday.

The school desks were originally long planks set on empty flour barrels and the seats were boards on crates or wood blocks. A school report from the early 1840s says, “scholars are arranged on the outside of the room. . . on roosts (for such seats deserve no better name) from 20 to 22 inches high—five inches higher than a common chair made for adults. There was no such thing as sitting on the seat and touching the floor with the feet at the same time.” The seating was arranged in a horseshoe shape around a smoky wood stove set in the center of the room. Existing photographs from about 1895 show the later use of wide “double form” desks on cast iron legs, each desk having seats for two children side by side. These were arranged facing the front of the room.

Schools of the time were poorly outfitted and badly maintained; the general philosophy was to spend as little as possible on education. The school buildings were either too hot or too cold, depending on the season. On dark, cloudy days only an oil lamp on the teacher’s desk provided some additional light. Four of the early district schools in Fairhaven did not even have outhouses, though the Oxford Village school did. Many schools had no maps or globes and few books. The educational situation in Massachusetts was not rectified until 1883 when the district school system was abolished and replaced with townwide school boards.

By the 1890s, the population in North Fairhaven outgrew the Oxford Village schoolhouse. Some students were sent to classes in a room in a local shoe factory while others were transported by horse drawn bus to Rogers School. In 1896, a new Oxford School (1896-2007) was built on Main Street, bringing the classes in the small one-room schoolhouse to an end.

In later years, the schoolhouse was used as a meeting place for various societies and religious organizations, including the Episcopalians who held regular services here beginning in 1906, before the Church of the Good Shepherd was built in 1922.

The Old Stone Schoolhouse is property of the Town of Fairhaven, maintained by the Fairhaven Historical Commission.

Manjiro at School

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In 1841, Captain William H. Whitfield on the whaleship John Howland rescued fourteen-year-old Japanese youth Manjiro Nakahama from a small island in the Pacific Ocean, on which Manjiro and four other fishermen had been stranded for nearly six months. Manjiro returned to Capt. Whitfield’s Fairhaven home, becoming the first Japanese person to live in America.

Manjiro was tutored in English by Miss Jane Allen from Oxford Street, next door to the home of Ebenezer Akin where Manjiro boarded. He also attended classes at the Old Stone Schoolhouse.

After learning American customs and studying navigation in Fairhaven, Manjiro eventually returned to Japan. Back in his native country he became a prominent figure during the opening of Japan to western trade. Manjiro became a professor of navigation and ship engineering at the Naval Training School in Tokyo. He also compiled A Short Cut to English Conversation, which became a standard book on practical English. Twice Manjiro returned to America on diplomatic missions for the Japanese government.

The story of Manjiro Nakahama’s rescue by Capt. Whitfield and his life in Fairhaven is still taught today to Japanese school children.

Each year, many Japanese visitors come to Fairhaven to see the Old Stone Schoolhouse and other sites associated with Manjiro. Even Japan’s Emperor Akihito visited here when he was Crown Prince in 1987, the same year a Sister City agreement was signed between Fairhaven-New Bedford and Tosashimizu, Japan, where Manjiro grew up.

Several Japanese and American television production crews documenting the Manjiro story have videotaped in the schoolhouse.

The Capt. William Whitfield House, located two blocks away from the schoolhouse at 11 Cherry Street, Fairhaven, is maintained by the Whitfield-Manjiro Friendship Society, Inc. For more information about Manjiro and the Capt. Whitfield House, visit the MANJIRO WEBSITE.

1828 Building Contract

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Be it remembered that on this seventeenth day of March, A.D. 1828, it is agreed by and between John Taber, Bartlett Allen, Clement D. Nye and Nicholas Taber, a committee chosen by the inhabitants of School District No. 11 in Fairhaven for superintending the building of a schoolhouse in said district; on the one part, and Bartholomew Taber of Fairhaven aforesaid on the other part in manner and form following (to wit) the said Bartholomew Taber or his assigns shall and will within five months next after the date hereof in good and workmanlike manner well and substantially erect, build or cause to be built a schoolhouse for the use of said district according to plans hereunto annexed, of the dimensions following, viz: the building to be 36 feet by 20 ½ feet in the clear inside when finished; the walls to be of good faced unhewn stone laid in good mortar made of good lime and beach sand, to be 18 inches thick at the bottom and 15 inches thick at the top and 10 feet in height in the clear inside with one door in the wall for an outside door, to be a double or lined door to have good substantial hinges and lock suitable for the same with windows of 24 panes each of 7 x 9 glass; the frames and sashes of which to be made of good stuff clear of sap and well glazed with good Boston glass with shutters to all the windows outside hung with good hinges and suitable fastenings to fasten then outside and inside; the frame and flooring overhead to be of good timber, the plates and beams to be not less than 6 x 7 inches square and joist suitable for the same; the roof to be a hip roof framed with two good oak kings posts well braced into the rafters, and well fastened into the beams below them; the beams to be arched not less than two inches to be jets all around and on them gutters made of timber clear of sap and well fastened on; with four leadened pipes and trunks or leaders for the same either of tin or wood to lead the water down; the roof to be covered with good white pine boards and put together and well nailed, to be shingles with the best quality of eastern shingles well nailed, the flooring below to be of good oak timber, the floor to be laid with thick boards, matched together or inch boards laid double and square joints, but no floor to be laid overhead, an entry to be partitioned off across the south end 4 ½ or 5 feet in width with one door into the schoolroom and to be sealed up as high as the bottom of the windows against the partition which partition is to be of two inch plank, also some shelves and strips of boards put up in the entry, to lay clothes and hang hats on, the school room to be furred out with two inch plank against the stone walls, and to be sealed up as high as the bottom of the windows and the windows cased in neat and plain manner, there are to be 24 forms for desks to accommodate two scholars each, and 16 half do. for one scholar each, also a platform and desk for the master and some benches to accommodate small scholars to be provided with a large size stove and pipe to go up within two feet of the plastering overhead and then turn and extend to within four feet of the north end and then be turned up into a small chimney, built from the floor and well leaded on the roof; the walls from the bottom pf the windows and overhead to be well lathed and plastered with good mortar, also to build a convenient building for a necessary to be enclosed with good boards planed on both sides and matched together and the roof to be shingled with good shingles, there is to be a trench dug two feet deep and three feet wide for the foundation filled with large flat stones well laid together for the walls of the house to stand on. And the said Bartholomew Taber is to pay for the lot which is to contain 20 rods at one dollar per rod, and be at the expense of building the districts half of the fence round said lot, which is to be a good stone wall, the walls of said house are to be whitewashed; all the work to be done in plain, but neat and workmanlike manner.

In consideration whereof the said John Taber, Bartlett Allen, Clement D. Nye and Nicholas Taber for and in behalf of the inhabitants of said district No. 11 do covenant with and grant to said Bartholomew Taber his executors, administrators and assigns, the whole sum which has been assessed on the inhabitants of said district for the purpose of building a schoolhouse as aforesaid, amounting to five hundred and twenty dollars and one cent, the said Bartholomew Taber to take the trouble of collecting the same and pay all the necessary expenses that may accrue in consequence of building said house and that the inhabitants of said district are to be at no more expense whatever until the house is completely finished and furnished with every necessary article for the reception of a school. To the true and faithful performance of the several articles and agreements above mentioned, the said John Taber, Bartlett Allen, Clement D. Nye and Nicholas Taber, do for and in behalf of the inhabitants of said district: and to said Bartholomew Taber for himself, his heirs and executors and administrators, bind each to the other in the penal sum of fifty dollars.

And in testimony whereof they have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and seals the day and year above written.