 Click Photo to access CSAA Registry Application Is the CSAA National Schoolhouse Registry Free? A question arose recently about the CSAA National Schoolhouse Registry. Through its National Schoolhouse Registry Program the Country School Association of America (CSAA) recognizes school buildings that contribute in some positive way to the appreciation and understanding of the country school experience and their unique architectural and historical heritage. Through application, school buildings that are at least 50 years old, that have been restored, renovated, and well maintained to retain the integrity of their original design, are invited to display that honor. It is the hope of the Country School Association of America that this registry and the optional marker will not only serve to identify school buildings of historical and/or architectural significance, but will also recognize preservation achievements and encourage the continuing care and preservation by our CSAA members. CSAA member groups or individual members are invited to submit application to be considered for the registry with no obligation to purchase the marker. We encourage purchase because it is an attractive addition to your schoolhouse. *CSAA members or member groups who purchase the CSAA Landmark Schoolhouse marker generally display it inside their schoolhouse or affix it on the outside. Markers may be ordered for $250 which includes the production of this durable cast metal plaque and postage. Many have opted to own one designed to call attention to the importance of their schoolhouse in history.
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 Vanessa Abbott with her proud parents Eugene and Jennifer Abbott New Preservationist Receives CSAA Scholarship & Artistry Award! Meet Vanessa Abbott of Ayer, Massachusetts, who was recently honored with a 2026 CSAA Scholarship and Artistry Award for her commendable research on behalf of the Sandy Pond District #11 Schoolhouse in her town. Vanessa completed an in-depth video project chronicling all the teachers who taught at Sandy Pond School from 1868 through 1906. Her research engaged her in the collection of their biographical information, the years they taught, their formal schooling, their photos, their family relations, related history of the times, where they lived or moved to, and where they were buried. Photos, charts, and music complete her challenging endeavor! In June, Vanessa hosted a presentation at a Sandy Pond Open House to share the details of her project, and her extraordinary video. She answered numerous questions from her enthusiastic visitors. People were both proud and amazed at the depth of her research and the entertaining organization of her information. When you watch her video project below, you can only imagine the hours Vanessa spent collecting and cataloguing her research, complete with a comprehensive bibliography (available at the Sandy Pond website)! We honor Ayer's young historian for preserving the history of a schoolhouse she loved, while leaving a compendium of knowledge to one of our remaining country schools. We wish Vanessa our best wishes as she attends Westfield State University in the fall! ---Country School Association of America Press, PAUSE to read any one page at a time!  CLICK ON THE RED SCHOOLHOUSE TO ACCESS ARTICLE Country School Resources
From the moment I took a job as a schoolmarm in country school living history program, I began a search for anything and everything "schoolhouse": articles, memorabilia, lesson plans, history books, artifacts, photos. I spent more time on the web researching than I can possibly recall. I wanted to know everything about how they operated, who built them, who funded them, who tended them, what a typical day was like, who the teachers were, what children of the past two centuries learned in them...and on and on. Sound familiar? From that search it was easy to amass country school information and articles, most of which I haven't revisited to this day. Returning to my "files" (a.k.a. boxes), I found priceless articles I should have been sharing. The Report Card is the perfect vehicle to spread the wealth. For this Report Card edition I offer: "The Old Red Schoolhouse" by Helen Lee, published in The New England Magazine, Volume 4, p.292, 1891. (books.google.com) Here are some of Helen's memories of her days in a one-room school. First person accounts return us to those times with simple stories and vivid imagery. Rest assured the essays posted will be well beyond the restrictions of copyright, and available resources will be cited. "Uphill Both Ways to School in the Snow..." As we swelter in the summer heat of 2026 we long for that break in the weather that will bring us cooling relief. Today in the northeast, temperatures reached from 82 to 93 degrees in one hour and two days ago my digital weather station recorded 101 degrees. As a cold weather person I recall how my father from New Jersey used to jest that my mother was a, "clam digging, blue nosed, New England Yankee." That blue nosed thing says something about how cold it can get here in New Hampshire and how many of us long for a hint of that right now! Scrolling through my digital photos for something other than this heat wave, I came across a photo from last years's Farm Days Event at Muster Field Farm in North Sutton, NH. On display was a giant snow roller, used from the mid 180o's into the early 1900's to "break out" the roads after a heavy snow fall. According to a post by John Robinson for WFMK Radio 99.1 in Michigan: "Before there was such a thing as snow plows, there were snow rollers. The rollers didn't remove or plow snow, they simply packed the snow down to make a smoother surface. Roads back then were not smooth to begin with – there were ruts, potholes, crevasses...all getting filled with packed snow by snow rollers to make the roads maneuverable. A snow roller was basically a large wheel that was pulled by horses or a team of oxen. Once the roadway was flattened, it was easier for carriages to get through, once they attached planks that resembled skis." This mammoth apparatus was more efficient than breaking out the road with a giant log pulled by the same horse or oxen power. The very weight of snow roller and the farmers driving the animals made for some very efficient hard packing of the roadways. All I could think of was... poor horses....poor oxen. And, remember the tales of our forefathers who claimed to, "walk uphill both ways to school in the snow?" They failed to mention snow rollers that made that trek a bit easier for school kids heading off to their country schools. Note: The snow roller under the pavilion (x2) is located in Bow, NH  Ryder Corner Schoolhouse at Muster Field Farm, No. Sutton, NH |
