Help Bring the Children back to Mr. Munn's Schoolhouse through Restoration and Preservation


Oxford Historical Society, Oxford, CT 06478

Links to download PDF forms:

2020 Membership Form,   Bylaws,   Collections Policy

2020 Newsletters: Jan/Feb

2019 Newsletters: Jan/Feb,  March/April,  May/June,

July/August, Sept-Oct   November/December


 

Resources on Oxford History

 
Oxford Historical Society
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January News:
     The first Oxford Historical Society of the year will be held on Monday, Jan. 20 at 1 p.m. at the Twitchell-Rowland Homestead, 60 Towner Lane.
     The agenda for the meeting includes the usual reports, plus a brief review of what has been accomplished in the preservation and renovation of the one-room Mr Munn Schoolhouse. Plans for the work for the coming year will be made.
     We will hear a report is the plans for the Fifth Annual Fiber Fest which will be held April 18 and 19 at the Homestead.
     Also slated for discussion will be a quilt show to be held on May 9, the day before Mothers' Day. We will be looking for volunteers to help serve as hosts and hostesses for the event.
     All members and friends are invited to attend and participate.

Click the links below for more information:
Current Newsletter features info on Mr. Munn's Schoolhouse: What Did it Look Like?
  Details on the early history of Oxford schools are relatively few. There is a chapter in History of the Town of Oxford by Norman Litchfield and Sabina Connolly Hoyt that offers a quote describing a school of the period: “A continuous desk ran around three sides of the room, leaving an aisle next the wall. It had one long continuous bench, over which the scholars had to step, in order to be seated. In the open space in front was the teacher’s table.”
   It wasn’t until 1899 that the Board of Education expended $8.20 for 26 desks.
   “The school had but one room, which at first was heated by an open fire place, but which by about 1820, had a cast iron stove. It was the duty of one of the older boys to see to it that a good supply of firewood was on hand throughout the winter, and each school morning he had to be on hand early to build the fire so as to have the room fairly warm before school opened.
    “Generally there were two terms, winter and summer. “The winter term began the week after Thanksgiving Day and continued twelve to sixteen weeks...school kept every day in the week except Sunday.”

Download current issue of  Making History Every Day in PDF format to see some paintings of typical one-room schoolhouses, interior and exterior.
Or, see the newsletter contents HERE in HTML
Oxford Historical Society
 
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Honor an Educator; Move a Schoolhouse

    The Oxford Historical Society offers area residents an opportunity to honor an educator, while supporting the preservation of the 1850’s one-room school known as Mr. Munn’s Schoolhouse. Originally built as a private schoolhouse, it was later used by the Oxford's First School District as a “select school,” where advanced students could be prepared for college.

     The building, formerly located at 561 Oxford Road, was moved to the Historical Society's Twitchell-Rowland Homestead Museum campus at 60 Towner Lane. There the Society will restore and preserve the building to offer children and adults the experience of a day in a one-room schoolhouse.

     To support the move, the Society has launched the “Honor an Educator” program. Supporters can make a $5 donation to the preservation program in honor of an educator. In return they will receive a special note card to be sent to the teacher they wish to honor. Donors will also receive an acknowledgement of their tax-deductible gift to the Society.

     Forms to “Honor an Educator” may be found HERE on the Society's website or picked up at the Town Clerk's Office. They are also available at the Homestead Museum on the first and third Sundays of each month from 2-4 p.m.

      Donations through the Honor an Educator program will enable the development of a hands-on, living history program that will teach today’s students about education in Oxford in the past, and honor the heritage of educators who have helped Oxford’s children become useful members of society. Your support is appreciated.