Ever wonder what a classroom looked like almost 200 years ago?  No need to wonder any longer.  Renovations are complete and a celebration in the works for the mid-19^th century Red Creek School house.  The school is currently found on the grounds of the Rogers Mansion Museum Complex, a property of the Southampton History Museum, but it hasn’t always been so.

According to the Southampton Historical Museum Executive Director, Tom Edmonds, the school house could date back to as early as 1830 and was originally located in what was called the Village of Red Creek on the Peconic Bay, near the present day border of Hampton Bays and Flanders.

“In 1953, the museum purchased the building from William Hubbard for $400 and moved it to Southampton. It was the fifth and final relocation for the building, which had to be ferried across the Shinnecock Canal by barge.

In Southampton, it took its place among other authentic buildings arranged on the museum grounds to represent a 19^th-century village. Since its arrival, the schoolhouse has been a popular destination for thousands of Southampton school children, who visit to learn what schooldays were like in the past,” said Edmonds.

The restoration, made possible by a $50,500 matching grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, was carried out by carpenter Nathan Tuttle, who put his expertise in historic restoration to work outside and inside the building.

The public is invited to celebrate the official opening of the restored Red Creek Schoolhouse at the museum, 17 Meeting House Lane, Southampton on Saturday, May 5 at 4pm—admission is free but donations are being accepted. For more information or to RSVP for the event call 631-283-2494 or visit www.southamptonhistory.org.

 — by Amanda Summers