LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - JANUARY 31, 2021 by Lynne Belluscio I’ve been trying to put together information about the schools in LeRoy for the fourth grades’AHands-On-Hi s tory project. The 8-page booklet is finished but there was one photograph that eluded me. I knew that there were four schools in the village, two on the east side of the village and two on the west side. And I had photos of the three brick school houses, but I couldn’t find the photo of the school on Wolcott Street. I knew it existed, but I couldn’t remember where it was. Last night I found it. It was filed under “churches.” This is like the time I was looking for photographs of the Oatka Creek behind the dam - - the view from the steps of the Library. I looked for “Oatka Creek” - -nope. I looked for “Creek” – nope. And could not for the life of me figure out how Bill Lane organized the photo files. By chance I found the photos, filed under “Mill Pond” for indeed, that part of the creek, south of the dam, was the mill pond for the mills on Mill Street. And so, the photo of the school, was filed in the church files, because from 1895, until 1912, it was the German Evengelical Lutheran Church. The sign above the door in the photo says that. The Lutherans had bought the building when the village schools were beginning to consolidate as the Union Free School System. I’m not sure when this school was built, but the brick schools were built in the late 1870s. After the Lutherans disbanded, the building was vacant for a while, and then it was incorporated into a house. The other three schools in the village are still standing. One is the Second Baptist Church on Myrtle Street, and has recently undergone some major reconstruction. The one on East Avenue, was the factory for Co-Fen-O, a grain-based coffee substitute. It was converted into a residence by Dan O’Shea and recently received an addition of a porch. The school on the corner of School and Lake Streets can be identified by the large “quoins” on the corners. I have looked at the building that is there now, with the two front porches, and can only surmise that the original school is the back part of the house, and that the two-story front was added on when it was converted into a house, but I’m not certain. The only photograph of the old school with all the kids in front is not in great condition. I should point out, that all of these schools had bell towers on the top. These bells were rung to call the kids to school. When we think of the sounds of the “old days” few of us remember a school bell. By the time I went to school, there were electric bells in the school and electric buzzers. Somehow, I think the old school bell was more friendly. Pictured right from Top to Bottom: School on corner of Wolcott and Union street Myrtle Street School East Avenue School School on the corner of Lake Street and School Street The Four School Houses