First Schoolhouse Antiques sells a variety of antiques and collectibles in an original 18th century schoolhouse building.
The 11 by 16 foot Plymouth Center Schoolhouse was built in 1799 on the northwest corner of the Plymouth Green.
The schoolhouse is one of the very few 18th century buildings which still retains its entire history. The school housed 60 pupils at the time of opening. Originally there were no windows, and students would sit around three sides of the room facing the wall. The teachers desk as well as a wood stove occupied the center. Lessons were taught here until 1849 when a larger two story building was constructed a few feet south of the building. The first school building was then used as storage.
The newer building soon became over-crowded, and a larger four room schoolhouse was to be built on the site in 1900. The 1849 schoolhouse was demolished and the first Plymouth Center School was lifted and moved
to a home on South Street.
The schoolhouse was renovated... Windows and pine paneling were added to the small building. In 1903 Miss Sarah Chapman, the daughter of a Plume & Atwood company official in Thomaston, opened the building
as a private school with five students. The school closed in 1904 after one short year of operation.
The building retained the same condition Miss Chapman left it up until the 1980’s. The home on South Street was purchased and remodeled for resale, and the schoolhouse was subject to “improvements” as well. Dotted particle board was mounted on three walls and three of the windows were blocked off. The objects belonging to Miss Chapman were lost to history, however the original cast iron wood stove remained.
Due to the lack of maintenance of an abandoned colonial homestead which bordered the schoolhouse; the school began to fall into disrepair. The south side of the roof disintegrated and the south wall faced the same fate. Because the building was moved and placed on the ground with no foundation it began to sink and sag almost 8 inches into the ground.
In 2015, the Town of Plymouth took interest in moving the building to the Eli Terry Jr. Waterwheel site as a small museum but the buildings rotted condition proved too far gone to handle.
In August 2016, Tom Vaughn came into possession of the building and dismantled it wall by wall to move to his family farm on South Main Street in Terryville. Three months of non-stop day long work succeeded in the resurrection of the building. The schoolhouse was restored to expose the original construction and the stone foundation of the building is made up of granite salvaged from local homesteads, and historic places. The flag which flies on the building is a hand sewn reproduction of the 1799 flag with 15 stars and 15 stripes.
