Union School Building - 1895

Union School Building

What follows is a rather dry version of the history based on a much more colorful memoir written by Helen Proctor Mason that can be found in one of the Dunstable history books, Dunstable Village, which can be checked out or purchased at the Dunstable Library. Thank you to Curt Gates, the editor of Dunstable Village, and the Board of Selectmen for giving permission to draw so heavily on their book.

The Union School was built in 1895. The name Union School came from the fact that prior to its construction, school had been conducted in five one-room district schoolhouses located throughout the town. One of those original schoolhouses, District School No.2, can still be seen when you are heading west on Pleasant Street. Look for the small brick building on the right just past Salmon Brook. Until recently, it was used as the garage for the town Highway Department. Another one that is still standing, District School No.4, is the white clapboard building at the corner of Main and Fletcher Streets.

When the Union School was built, Dunstable had about 360 residents. Initially, classes were only held in the two rooms on the east side, until the school expanded to use three classrooms in 1902. The town library occupied the other room on the lower floor, until it was moved into the "new" Town Hall built by Sara Roby in 1909. After the library was moved, the fourth room was used as a lunchroom for many years.

Class sizes were comparable to today's class sizes, except there were three or more grades in each room. While one grade was reciting its lesson, the other grades would study, do written work like arithmetic or grammar, read their history or geography, write out spelling words, or do whatever else the teacher had set up for that time. On certain days, a period would be set aside for the whole room to have a writing lesson, a singing period or a drawing period.

he basement of the Union School was divided into a heating area and a play space for bad weather. Upstairs off the large halls were coat rooms. In a corner of the staircase on the first floor was a shelf on which stood a pail of water with a tin drinking cup hanging on the wall. There was a big hot-air register in the center of the entrance-hall floor. Wet woolen mittens were put there to dry.

There were various improvements over the years. A new heating and ventilation system was added in 1908 to remedy the problem of inadequate heating on the west side. A kitchen was added to the lunch room so they could serve hot lunches. After state law forbade the use of public cups in public places, the old bucket and drinking cup was replaced by an insulated tank with a spigot, and a container of paper cups. It wasn't until some years later that the school got its own water supply. And, eventually, the outhouses were replaced by indoor plumbing.

At the time when the district schools were consolidated into the Union School, most of the students rode to school in what were called school barges, drawn by horses. The barges were high wagons with steps out of the back. Black rubberized tops and sides were stretched over a framework. The sides were curtains that rolled up in good weather. In winter the floor was covered thick with hay and straw to keep the children's feet warm. When the snows came, the barges were put on runners, which made them sleighs. There was no such thing as a snow day. Three barges served the whole town, until motor vehicles were common place.

The Dunstable school was in a school superintendent's district that included Chelmsford and Tyngsboro in those days. Later the district was changed and Dunstable joined with the Pepperell schools. Many of the children who attended school in the early days of the Union School have names that you see and hear around town: Tully, Brow, Upton, Goldthwaite, Proctor, Clark, Kimball, Swallow, Hall, Woodward, and Drew. Today, the building still stands on the hill to remind us of the people who gave the town its character.