West District Schoolhouse

Pupils and teachers at the West Schoolhouse c.1885
May Newcomb Photo

Report by a Committee to Study the West District Schoolhouse April 5, 1841

" HAVING VIEWED THE SCHOOLHOUSE in said West School District we are unaminous in opinion that the interest of the Pupils composing said School District, suffer very much for want of accommodations, that it is necessary to have a new Schoolhouse built ... the present schoolhouse is very much decayed (and although the school is small) yet the house is too small to accommodate the Scholars that generally attend that school - the ceiling of the schoolroom is so low (that part of it where the seats and writing Desks are located) that middle sized persons cannot stand erect, . . . therefore .... to repair the present house there would not be a difference in the expense of more than Twenty Dollars from the Cost of a new house.."

THE WEST DISTRICT SCHOOLHOUSE at West
End Park at Farm, Glen and Wight Streets replaced
a primitive earlier schoolhouse with low ceilings.
Photo from "History of Dover", Smith

Memories of the West Schoolhouse by Chet Heinlein, Sr. and Arlan Wotton, 1976:

'....AFTER the District Schoolhouses were closed and they transported all the kids to the Center, a group of the young folks (and adults) used the West Schoolhouse as a club house They called it the West End Community Club had a piano and had dances weekly... The club continued for quite a few years...Finally the West Schoolhouse was bought and moved up onto the Donnelly property by Mr. Sweet who owned the estate at that time... He converted it into a house for his foreman... But you'd never recognize it now as having been the West Schoolhouse... It has been changed so much. ....'