Snapshot : Read Schoolhouse
In the early 1830s , a group of farmers in Coventry founded a one-room schoolhouse along what ’ s now Flat River Road . One of several that dotted the landscape in the 1800s , the school took its name from Williams Read , who provided the land from his adjacent farm . “ They started primarily in the mill villages , because the mills were where the people were . Then they decided to build them where the farms were ,” says Norma Smith , chairwoman of the Coventry Historic Preservation Commission . A few years earlier , the General Assembly had passed the landmark School Act of 1828 , establishing the first statewide fund for public education . Students in grades one through six walked to the schoolhouse , where a wood-burning stove kept the building toasty through the winter months . In the summer , a ladle and bucket were used to fetch drinks from the well . “ The kids in the warmer weather would run down to the river and jump in ,” Smith says . The school closed in 1951 with the opening of the nearby Washington-Tiogue Elementary School . Today , it educates students and visitors about nineteenth century schools and stands as a landmark to another time . “ We don ’ t have the Breakers , but what we have , we should tell people we have ,” Smith says . — LAUREN CLEM
( PHOTOGRAPH BY WOLF MATTHEWSON )
160 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2023