Irishtown Schoolhouse

The Minerva Historical Society acquired the Irishtown Schoolhouse in July of 1994.  Since that time the Society has focused on the restoration and maintenance of the building. For a complete history and timeline of the project please see pages 43 and 44 in the Society's publication:  Minerva: A History of a Town in Essex County, NY.  1986 - 2017,  The Society was the recipient of the Adirondack Architectural Heritage Award for the work done to preserve the structure and history of the schoolhouse which was built in 1847.  
District #4 - Irishtown
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1840’s - We have no record which shows just when this school was started, but it seems certain that for some years the children of the area attended the school in District #1 which was located on the Irishtown Road. It was probably in the 1840’s that a log school was built about where the later school stood on the corner of the Irishtown Road leading past St. Mary’s Church. When the 1855 census was taken Irishtown had a log school valued at $10
  • 1842 - Centralization
  • 1842 - Six schools were listed as receiving money. No. 4 was then Irishtown which received the largest amount
  • 1860 - The building  which is still standing was probably erected around 1860. it became a part of District #1 when consolidation took place.
  • 1900 - There was an alteration for school districts 3, 13 and 4. Edward J. Owens, Country Commissioner of Schools ordered that the territory known as lots 91, 92, 93 and 94 in township 25, be taken from district 13 and annexed to district 3 and that lots 4, 9, 10, 14 and 15 of Thorne Survey be taken from district 3 and annexed to district 4
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Photo courtesy of the MHS Museum. Date unknown
Irishtown School House Gets a Facelift
Thank you to Patrick Strohmeyer, Robert Kohrman, Steven & Bonnie McNally, Keith Iversen, Tom Savarie and, all those who helped with the painting and the building of the storage extension. Thanks to Joyce Tuffey, Dawn Galusha-Hoctor and Patrick Strohmeyer for cleaning and organizing the inside for our Irishtown Celebration. More thanks to Michelle Smith-Brannon and family for priming the outside.
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Schoolhouse is scraped and ready for primer Photo courtesy of Teresa Brannon Strohmeyer
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Schoolhouse is primed and ready for paint Photo courtesy of Sharon Stone
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Irishtown in the Autumn Photo by Sharon Stone