19th century schoolhouse in Bethel restored

Bethel ( AP) — They remember that pulling a girl’s hair or throwing spitballs would earn them a spot under the teacher’s desk as punishment.

They remember the unwelcome cold of winter when they had to use the outhouses — one for boys and one for girls on either side of the woodshed.

They also remember the soup from home warmed by their teacher’s hot plate and listening to lessons given to the other grades.

The memories, and the history of the one- room Plumtrees Schoolhouse that was built in 1867, continue to inspire some former students to lead its restoration.

“We just finished painting the outside and the shutters are going on now,” 80-year-old Don Taylor said at the school this week. “It was quite an ordeal to find the shutters. We got a grant from the Meserve Fund to cover the cost and found an antiques dealer in Great Barrington, (Mass.) who gave us a great deal.”

Taylor, who attended grades one through seven at Plumtrees in the 1940s, and two other former students head efforts to raise private and corporate donations needed to complete the restoration of the school as they remember it.

Seventy- eight- year- old Ed Rockwell went through grades one through four at the school where his aunt, Anna Rockwell, was the teacher for 43 years. One of the two primary schools in town is named after her.

“I didn’t get extra treatment from her,” Rockwell said. “She had complete control of the children. She wasn’t a mean teacher or strict, but you didn’t get away with anything. You couldn’t.”

“I don’t remember any disruption,” added 83-yearold Leroy Staib, who attended all but second grade at Plumtrees.

“The beauty of one room was that she would be teaching third grade, but the first- and second- graders could hear that class and get involved in the different lessons,” Staib said.

Taylor’s wife went to Western Connecticut State University when it was Danbury State Teachers College. The student teachers would visit the school to see how Rockwell handled the seven grades.

The original school was built on land deeded to the town by Eliza Benedict. The school was enlarged in 1884 and had room for about 24 students.

In 1957, it closed for two years as the town added indoor plumbing and a front entrance facing Taylor Road.

“Theindoorplumbingwent in the 1950s. We took a bunch of kids in from the Stony Hill area and they raised a fuss about going to the outside bathroom,” Stabi said. “I can remember.”

The children walked to school because there were no buses.

“The teacher rang the bell. She gave you about five minutes to get in,” said Taylor, who found and retrieved a bell in Pennsylvania identical to the original.

One blackboard in the room had the original stars the teacher gave students after checking them. The men recalled being asked if they had brushed their teeth, and having their ears and hands and hair checked for cleanliness, too.

The school closed in 1970 and for years was used by the Visiting Nurse Association as a children’s health care clinic.

In 2006, the Plumtrees School House and Landmark Preservation Committee was formed and in 2007 the school was placed on the state of Connecticut Registry of Historic Places.