Back to Introduction

Historical Sketch
District No. 4 School - Scott
1819-1968

According to information on file at the Cortland County Historical Society the first schoolhouse in this district was farther south than the present school site, at the Vincent Hill Road intersection (on the west side of the road) where the ground swells to create what has been referred to since earliest times as "Schoolhouse Hill". Like the majority of its counterparts, this first schoolhouse was probably constructed of logs and the first three years saw classes taught only three months. The District had been formed in the spring of 1819 and although moneys were collected in 1820, no session was held. In 1821, however, records report that 40 youngsters between the ages of five and fifteen received some "schooling".

The original District No. 4 boundaries included all of Military Lots 51 and 61 and the west halves of 71 and 81 in the Town of Scott. However, except for the former two, the boundaries continued to change many times throughout the nearly one hundred and fifty year life of the district as the population increased and decreased and families with sizeable numbers of school-age children shifted about in the valley and expressed their preferences in such matters to the Trustees. The lay of the land seldom conformed with the political subdivision lines which followed the surveyor's transit and consequently District No. 4 boundaries included lakeside valleys of the Towns of Sempronius (Cayuga County) and Spafford (Onondaga County) as a matter of convenience.

Families in "Lake Hollow", whose children were among the first to receive their education through the Common School system, included the children of:

From the statistics that are available, it appears that one or more of Samuel Scott's children attended District No. 4 School every year commencing in 1826 until about 1860; except for a period between 1835 and 1845 when they were in Ohio. By the 1850s, other names appear in the valley, many familiar even today -- Norton, Randall, West, Landphiere, Vincent, Crofoot. The Scotts continued to be active in the administration of the school, serving from time to time as Trustees. A frame structure replaced the early log schoolhouse and this was later added to a nearby house when a new site, the present one, was chosen for the school. Options had been taken on various parcels of land near the intersection of Glen Haven Road and East Lake Road. In 1856, the new site, being property belonging to Samuel and Permilia Scott, was sold to the Trustees of School District No. 4, Scott and Sempronius. The "site for a schoolhouse" lay across the road from a "house owned and occupied by Samuel Scott Jun." A typical frame one-room school was constructed and occupied shortly thereafter and remained in use for a little over forty years when it was retired and replaced by the unusual structure that stands today (1978) housing a good-sized one-room school, as well as a generously stocked library.

The school children themselves were principally responsible, not only for the new school being built, but for having a private library under the same roof. It all began in the early 1890s with the desire for a large American flag for their school. The youngsters formed an American Flag Club and proceeded to raise money to purchase such a banner. When fifty dollars was realized, a "friend" stepped forward and made a donation of a flag, so the children requested that a room be fitted up in the schoolhouse for books to be purchased with the money they had raised. A Charter was sought and granted thereby establishing the Glen Haven Libary whose assets soon grew out of the space alloted in the school. Almost simultaneously, the Trustees of the two organizations discussed the need for new buildings, one a new schoolhouse (funds were lacking); the other, a library to house nearly 1,000 volumes (an appropriate site was needed). Both of these problems received a great deal of attention and discussion, and after a few years of treading water, a compromise was reached. The decision was to build one structure designed to accommodate both needs. The School District would provide the appropriate site and and some funds, however, the Glen Haven Library would make a sizeable financial contribution toward the cost of construction. The Glen Haven School and Library was built in 1901 at a cost of $2,350 following the design submitted by architect Ehrick K. Rossiter of New York City, who had for many years supported and urged a separate library facility.

Another half century passed and the school flourished and survived the centralization sydrome that swallowed up all the other area one-room schools. Classes continued through the academic year 1967-8 following several years of resistance to the closing of its doors resulting in the transporting of the elementary students from "The Glen" to Homer, New York.

And so it came to pass -- progress had her way. The Glen, the Town of Scott and Cortland County saw a tangible link with the past broken.

Back to Introduction

Copyright 2007 by Meg Baker
Some rights reserved by Creative Commons license.



since 2007