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100 Years Ago, Brooklin Had Nine Schools
There is no high
school in Brooklin—but there is a very rich tradition of schooling
there.
Brooklin’s history of schools
goes back to 1849, when there were nine schools in 10 different
districts within town. That year, there were as many as 420
students among all the schools. |
One hundred years
ago, Brooklin flourished as a place where fisheries, canneries and
boatbuilding kept the waterfront busy. For the workers’ families,
there were as many as nine one-room grammar schools scattered
throughout the town.
They all fed into
the first
Brooklin
High School, which was built in 1897—only to burn in 1916. Rebuilt
in 1920 on the same site, the high school was revived—until that one
also burned, in 1930.
Again the high
school was rebuilt, staying as the town’s focal point until it
closed in 1969. Then it became Brooklin Junior High. Students in
grades nine through 12 attended either
Deer
Isle-Stonington
High School or George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill.
As for the nine
grammar schools, each closed, one by one, as the town’s population
changed and centralized. In 1928, the Brooklin Village School was
built near the Brooklin Corner—in the building that later became
Brooklin’s current Town Hall.
The new Brooklin
Elementary School opened in 1996, with older students still
tuitioned chiefly to Deer Isle or Blue Hill. |
