SAVONA UNION SCHOOL

The first school districts in the Town of Bath were laid out in 1813 at a meeting in widow Trovinger’s Tavern at Mud Creek, and Mud Creek (Savona) was designated District No. 1. Districts were small so that the children could walk to class and the schools were usually one or two rooms. Other nearby schools included Eagle Valley, Green Hill, Sonora, Irish Hill, Wolf Run, West Hill, Oak Hill, Peterson Lake, and the Grove School on Savona’s West Side. An 1830 map shows the District No. 1 School, said to be a log cabin, located near the four corners.

A new frame one-room schoolhouse was built in 1848 on a lot purchased from Thomas and Michael Corbitt and adjacent to Elisha McCoy’s land; a second room was added in 1869. By the mid 1880’s this school was severely overcrowded, so a new 2 story, four room school (shown in the picture) was built on the same lot. The old school was moved away in two sections and is now part of houses located at 23 Orchard Street and 36 McCoy Street

In 1891 the district school was changed to a union free school, with a Board of Education and an academic department (which meant adding a junior high or middle school, until 1898, when high school was offered). The school never had an auditorium or gymnasium. Programs, graduations and sporting events were usually held in the Opera House (above Kings’ Market) or on the second floor of the Central Garage (the large stone barn on Main Street). After the new Savona Central School building opened in 1832, the old school on McCoy Street was torn down. The lot is now the site of the Village Hall, Fire Department and the Savona Free Library.

Rick Littell – Village of Savona Historian