Schools of Sherborn, Massachusetts

Locations of Schools in Sherborn

First Public School

Plain School

North School

South School

Farm School

West School

Stannox School

Center School

Dowse Academy

Sawin Academy

Pine Hill School

1709: First Public Schooling in Sherborn

In 1709, the town voted to provide schooling for three months in three different parts of town. The schools were still held in private houses. The three places were the Plain, South End, and Dirty Meadow. These schools would have been located in private homes on Edward’s Plain near North Main Street, in South Sherborn near the Charles River, and off Washington Street.

A tax of £8 was levied to pay for the schools. Since this vote in 1709, the town has paid for public schools.

In 1719, the town voted that schools should be kept in homes in five parts of the town. Chestnut Brook and Bald Hill were added to the list of places where schools were held.

1727: First Public Schoolhouse Is Built

Using the money from the 50 acres of land that was set aside in 1679, the town decided to build a schoolhouse. In 1727, a school building that was built was 18 feet long and 20 feet wide, which is smaller than a Pine Hill School classroom. The schoolhouse was located next to the meetinghouse, near where the Unitarian Church stands today. This building was used until 1770, when the building and its contents were bought by Captain Sanger.

The school was open only during the winter, when the children were not needed on the farms. It was taught by a man teacher. The teaching staff grew to two when, in 1761, the town voted to pay a woman to teach the smaller children.

Reading, writing, and cyphering (simple math) were taught. The General Court of the Colony (the Legislature) also specified that other subjects be taught, such as Latin, Greek, and history. There have been state educational requirements (“frameworks”) for hundreds of years!

1700s and 1800s: One-Room Schoolhouses

As the population of the town grew from about 800 people at the end of the 1700s to 1,500 at the end of 1800s, the town was divided into several areas, or school districts, where small, one room schoolhouses were built. The 16 square mile size of Sherborn required several schools so children could easily walk to them. In 1828, clear boundaries for the school districts were established. A School Committee was formed in 1838.

By 1852, there were as many as seven little schools around town. A woman usually taught summer term, and a man taught winter, when the older boys would join the girls and younger boys in school.

Plain School

The Plain School was located at 60 North Main Street. This school building was built in 1834 by Hiram Jones. It was called the "Plain School" because it was in a part of town known as Edward’s Plain (named for Edward West, the first schoolmaster, who owned a large land grant there). A library for the school was kept in the house across the street at 59 North Main Street. The school building was near the blacksmith shop in the Stone House down the street. The school children were entertained when Malachi Babcock, the blacksmith, sang as he hammered at his forge!

In 1900, the school building was moved closer to the roadway and remodeled as a house that still stands today. When it was a school, the building was set further back from the road with the playground for the children in front of it.

Plain School

Center School

Center School was a large two-story wooden structure located near the Unitarian Church and the town common. In 1910, many of the smaller, one room school houses were unified into this more centralized school.

Since the children could no longer just walk down the street to a local schoolhouse, they were brought by barge to this school in the town’s center. The school barge was a horse-drawn, open wagon or sleigh.

Center School

1800s and 1900s: Horse- Drawn School Barges

There were several barges that picked up children from all over town for the long, slow trip to and from Center School. In winter, the children were bundled into blankets and covered with hay because it took a chilly hour to get across town to the school!

1915: Trucks for School Barges

In 1915 the first trucks began being used as barges. Later, Model-T trucks were used. They had long benches on each side and a canvas top for bad weather. Later, hard tops replaced the canvas. The back of the vehicle was open and doubled as an emergency door.

Sherborn School Barge

1928: Safer School Barges

In 1928, the Sherborn School Committee (formed in 1838) insisted that all school buses be closed at the rear. The children had to enter and leave through the cab beside the driver. Soon after, this became a state regulation, too.

1910: New Brick Center School

In the early 20th century, Center School’s old wooden structure was replaced with a new brick building, which was completed in 1910. This new building stood next to the town common. The old wooden school building was moved down the street, where it was added to the Paul House at 41 North Main Street.

1949: Center School Enlarged

In 1949, Center School was enlarged. It housed first through sixth grade. Kindergarten was added in 1950. After 1957, it held only Kindergarten through third grade. As the population of the town grew rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, Kindergarten and first grade were moved up to Pine Hill School, and Center School housed only second and third grades.

“New” Town Hall Building

By the early 1980s, the Center School building was no longer used as a school, and it began to hold some of the town offices. Eventually, it became Town Hall. A 21st century renovation of Town Hall gave us the larger, modernized Town Hall building we know today.

1858: A Schoolroom in the New Town House

“The Town House” was what the Community Center building used to be called. Since it was built in 1858, it has stood next to the meetinghouse on the common. At that time it contained a spacious and elegant schoolroom and the town's first public library. The Town House also housed some of the elected town officials, as well as the Police Station. In addition, it provided a place for social events.

Sherborn’sTownHouse

1859-1873: Dowse High School

Until the m id-19th century, high school aged children were educated privately in town. Then, in 1858, Thomas Dowse left the town money to establish and run the first public high school in Sherborn. The school met in the schoolroom of the new Town House.

The school's first term began in March of 1859. The school term lasted only eleven weeks. (The school year wasn’t lengthened to 40 weeks until 1927.) The teacher, Mr. F. A. Baker, was paid $40 for his services, plus room and board. Mr. Baker had already been a teacher for several years in the district schools of the town during the winter terms.

Students ages 12 and older took an exam to be admitted to the school. They were tested in reading, spelling, writing, grammar, and arithmetic. Sixty pupils went to the school, and they filled all the seats.

For the next 15 years, Dowse High School provided education in the basic, as well as in the more advanced educational subjects, such as the classics and history, to the older children of the town.

Sherborn’sTownHouse

1874-1940s: Sawin Academy

In 1870, Martha Sawin of Natick left the town a large sum of money to build and support an academy for instruction in the advanced subjects of learning. Dedication exercises took place on September 10, 1874, for the new Sawin Academy.

This building was located where the Sherborn Library now stands. The two-story structure was built of brick and granite. It was topped with a mansard roof and a 90-foot-tall, octagonal tower. At first it was a private academy, but it became a public high school in 1910.

Sawin Academy

Later in the 19th century, the school terms were changed to fall, winter, and spring, as we now know them, and the school year was extended to 36 weeks. By law, school attendance was required only from ages 8 to 14 and for at least 20 weeks a year. In 1927, the school year was lengthened to 40 weeks, much as it remains today when 180 days are required by state law.

Changes in the School Terms

In the 1700s, the school term was only for three months during the winter, when the children were not needed on their farms. Gradually, more terms were added. In the mid-1880s, the school year ran from April through the following February. The three terms were summer, fall, and winter. The largest number of children attended the winter term because they were not needed on their farms.

1957: Pine Hill School Is Built

In the late 1950s, a new school building was built on top of Pine Hill, near some of the town’s recreation fields. The Pine Hill School opened in September, 1957. It housed grades 4 through 8, while Center School still held Kindergarten through grade 3.

In 1971, additions were made to Pine Hill School, giving the building a new dining room, as well as a new media center, with a large central library space and several open classrooms.

Pine Hill School

1998: Additions to Pine Hill School

In 1998, renovations and additions were made again to Pine Hill School. A full-size gym and four Kindergarten rooms were added, and the existing building was extensively renovated.

1962-Present: Dover-Sherborn Regional Schools

Since the 1940s, students in Sherborn had gone to high school in Framingham because there were not students to have a high school in Sherborn. In the early 1960s, the towns of Dover and Sherborn decided to unite their separate school systems. First, Dover-Sherborn Regional High School was built and opened in 1962, in Dover.

Soon, the two towns decided to also regionalize grades 7 and 8, so a new High School building was built on the same campus as the existing one. This new High School became Dover-Sherborn Regional High School (“Regional” was dropped later). The old High School building became Dover-Sherborn Junior High School. Grades 7 and 8 were moved from Pine Hill School over to the new Dover-Sherborn Junior High School.

In the late 1990s, grade 6 was also regionalized, and the Junior High School became the Dover-Sherborn Middle School. In the early 21st century, a new Middle School building was built, the old one torn down, and the High School building was refurbished. The Dover-Sherborn High School and Middle School share science and dining facilities, as well as parking lots and athletic fields.

300 Years of Sherborn Schools

Then and Now