Cooks Corners Schoolhouse - Pierrepont, NY
- What: A 130 year old one-room schoolhouse. The building serves as a community center for local residents. Over its long career the schoolhouse has been host to a number of activities ranging from ice cream socials to dances and funerals.
- Where: 643 Wilson Road, corner of Wilson and Orebed Roads,Pierrepont, New York, St. Lawrence County
- When: 1861? - Present
- Contact: The building is closed to the public but can be viewed from Orebed Road. The public is welcome to attend annual events and should contact either TAUNY for more information.
- Click here to add your own memory of Cooks Corners Schoolhouse to our guestbook.
Like scores of other one room schoolhouses that were closed during the period of centralization of rural school districts in the mid-twentieth century, Cooks Corners could well have been transformed into a family home, a retail shop or, more likely, torn down. Instead, the dozen or so families who lived in the district organized a community club and chose the schoolhouse for a meeting room. With no church or other public building in the neighborhood, oldtimers recall that the schoolhouse has occasionally been the site of bridal showers, weddings, family reunions, and even a funeral or two. During recent years, 4-H Club activities, group picnics, ice cream socials, pedro card parties, and a Christmas memory tree dedication have been among the community events that bring families and friends together. While new residents of the community are welcome, it’s rather remarkable that most of the old families who trace their roots to attendance at the school a century ago are still actively involved. It’s not uncommon to see four generations represented at today’s schoolhouse events.
Additional Photos
Click photos to view full size
The annual Christmas memory tree at the schoolhouse, with Wilson Road [left] and Orebed Road in view
Historical photo of a former teacher at the schoolhouse in winter, before the entrance was created on this southern facace and the schoolbell was in place
Community Club members and neighbors gather for lawn socials each summer at the old schoolhouse, with local storyteller Bill Smith a favorite entertainer
Sharing food is an important part of the fellowship of regular gatherings at Cooks Corners
Senior citizens of Cooks Corners who were students at the schoohouse, at a summer gathering, 2002
The Community Club members make holiday wreaths each fall to decorate the old schoolhouse for winter months, 1998
Pedro, an old card game and a longtime favorite among rural people in northern New York, is played on winter nights at the Cooks Corners schoolhouse
Fourth graders from Colton-Pierrepont spend one whole school day each spring at the Cooks Corners schoolhouse, re-enacting old lessons and recreation
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