May 17, 2012The First School and The First Church
Located at the Tew Mansion, 413 North Main Street
The first school house in Jamestown was erected in 1816 by James Prendergast who, for the first two decades of the settlement’s existence, paid all the expenses of public education. Prior to 1816, school was taught first in John Blowers’ house and later in Keyes Carpenter Shop and in the "cotton" mill just south of First Street and east of Potter’s Alley.
The schoolhouse was a two-story barn-like structure with few windows and heated by a large fireplace in the rear of the room. This school was Prendergast Academy. Subjects taught included English, Grammar, and Latin. The books used were a Murray’s English Reader, and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Each pupil was requested to bring a tallow candle. Mr. Abner Hazeltine, a Williams College graduate, the first instructor, was succeeded in 1819 by Mr. Flack who was an excellent teacher of writing and grammar.
The school building was moved to the northeast corner of Fourth and Cherry Streets in 1828 to make way for the First Congregational Church. It was then used as a district or common school and called the "old red schoolhouse".
HERE
THE FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE
THE PRENDERGAST ACADEMY WAS BUILT IN 1816. CHURCH SERVICES WERE HELD HERE UNTIL
THE FIRST CHURCH
WAS ERECTED IN 1829 ON THE SAME SITE BY THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AND SOCIETY ORGANIZED IN 1816. THE CHURCH STOOD UNTIL 1879.