THE OLD ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE
at Threshermen's Park
The year of 1916, when a young school teacher, not much older than some of her students, rang the bell for the first time in the newly built Laurel No. 9 one room schoolhouse, several miles north of Groton. Children from first to eighth graders filed into their new school, and neatly lined up their lunch pails on a shelf above the coat rack. A coal stove was the only source of heat, and was sitting in the center of the room.
In 1916, was Ray Pulfrey’s , a first grader, first day of school. He jokingly said “I served my eight years” in this school house. The bells last ring in the school house was in 1935.
Pulfrey never outgrew his love for the little school house. He purchased the building in 1969, restored it, and furnished it with antique desks, slate chalkboards, and numerous other things to recreate a school room from the past. In October 1999, Pulfrey donated the building and its contents to the James Valley Threshing Association, and was moved to Threshermen’s Park in Andover.
With visitors donating more schoolhouse items, and lots of loving care, the school is now one of the most popular features of the annual Threshing Show.
(Exerpt from story in our 40th Anniversary Book)