West Berkshire School | |
Location | Jct. of Berkshire Center and Mineral Brook Rds., Berkshire, Vermont |
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Coordinates | 44°59′10″N 72°48′36″W / 44.98611°N 72.81000°W |
Area | 0.3 acres (0.12 ha) |
Built | 1820 |
MPS | Educational Resources of Vermont MPS |
NRHP reference No. | 93001174 [1] |
Added to NRHP | November 4, 1993 |
The West Berkshire School is a historic school building at Berkshire Center and Mineral Brook Roads in Berkshire, Vermont. Built about 1820, it is one of the state's oldest surviving two-room two-story schoolhouses. It was used as a school until 1970. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. [1]
The West Berkshire School is near the southeastern fringe of the crossroads village of West Berkshire, at the western corner of Berkshire Center Road ( Vermont Route 118) and Mineral Brook Road. It is a vernacular two-story wood-frame building with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. A small square belltower rises from the roof ridge, with an open belfry covered by a gabled roof. The front facade is symmetrical, with a center entrance sheltered by an open gable-roofed vestibule. The vestibule is flanked by narrow windows, and there are sash windows on the second level. Fenestration on the side walls is irregular, the most significant arrangement being a bank of seven sash windows on the lower level of the east side, a likely early 20th-century alteration made to satisfy new state regulations regarding natural lighting. The interior consists of single chambers on each floor, with a staircase in a corner near the entrance. The building has been fitted with electricity, but has never had plumbing or heat other than a wood stove. An enclosed wood-frame fire escape was added to the west side in the 20th century, which also served to shelter the privy area. [2]
The school was probably built about 1820, based on stylistic analysis of its architecture. It is extremely unusual as a two-story two-room district schoolhouse, since most of Vermont's district schools (surviving and otherwise) were single-story single-room buildings. At the time of its National Register listing in 1993, there were six known examples of such schools in the state.