Basement As a School Room•


1990s_assorted_013At one time the basement of the stone house once owned by Mr. Byam Whitney (264 Mirick Rd) served as a schoolroom. Today owned by the Washburn’s.

When Rufus Davis (grandfather of Miss Isabel Davis) was a small boy, it was his responsibility to build the fire in the schoolhouse, which stood on the east side of the road not far from the stone house. One morning, he had, as usual, attended to this duty and had returned to his home for breakfast. While he was thus occupied, the fire he had started consumed the schoolhouse building as well, whereupon classes were held on the ground floor of the story-and-a-half stone house, the structure of which admirably suited such an arrangement. So far as we know, it continued to shelter the pupils of this vicinity until the brick schoolhouse known as # 2 was built in the angle of the road leading from Mirick Road to Mountain Road.

Some years later, Rufus married and apparently took his bride to the other stone house across the way, now in a state of dilapidation.

Jonas Beaman built both stone houses, and it is believed the stones were quarried on Pine Hill.

Miss Ethel Mirick

This was copied from the Princeton News, Vol. I, No. 6, dated August 1, 1952 and updated/clarified in August 2015 by the PHS.