A Brief History of the Doraville Schoolhouse
(from the Doraville Schoolhouse Cookbook)
The Doraville Schoolhouse was built about 1830 and was used as a schoolhouse for 110 years. In 1939, the Doraville school district centralized with Harpursville Central School, and the building thereafter ceased to be a school. For a while the building was used as a community clubhouse for meetings, suppers, and wedding receptions. It was used as a polling place until 1987, but after that year the residents went to Harpursville to vote. The old building began to need repairs, but the resident taxpayers did not want the added expense to repair it.
At this time a committee of interested people was recruited by the Town Historian, Minerva Flagg, to see if the schoolhouse could be restored and saved. It was, after all, the last remaining one-room schoolhouse in the Town of Colesville. Others had fallen down, burned, or been converted to other uses. The community response was overwhelming. Money flowed in through donations and numerous fund-raisers. Johnny Hart, local citizen and well-known cartoonist, provided the logo for the campaign to "Save the Doraville Schoolhouse".
In 1993, the Doraville Schoolhouse was moved, in two sections, from its original site to its present location behind the Colesville Town Hall, in Harpursville. The distance was three and one-half miles. It was here placed on piers set by the Harpursville Rotary Club. From that point, the old schoolhouse began to reappear under the direction of Restoration Committee Chairman, Donald Olin, and his dedicated crew of volunteers.
The goal set by the committee was to restore the building to what it was in the mid-1800's. All foundation stones, including the two large flag-stones on the porch landing, were moved from the original site and used. Many of the original hand-made bricks were used to rebuild the chimney. The windows were taken apart, and some of the original glass was preserved. Two of the original blackboards were uncovered. (These were simply boards painted black; more recent schools used slate "blackboards".) The outline of the teacher's platform was visible on the old floor, so a new platform was rebuilt on the same location. Similar outlines appeared on the floor where the boys and girls entrances were; new entryways were then built on them.
This Colesville treasure stands restored as a result of a large community effort. Over 1800 hours of volunteer labor went into this project, and volunteer labor continues for its maintenance. And, proudly, no taxpayer money was used in the restoration project.
Our schoolhouse has received recognition from beyond the local community too. The Preservation Society of the Southern Tier gave its distinguished P.A.S.T. award for its authentic restoration to us in 1994. Over a tousand people have visited the schoolhouse since its restoration, and programs are presented to show what school was like a hundred years ago. We are proud of our Colesville heritage and are trying to keep it alive.
As compiled by Rexford Cole, October, 1994.
