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Town Once Had 13 Schools
Two years ago, the
Orland
Consolidated School
marked 50 years. That was an easy number to note, particularly since
the school’s 50th year coincided with the town’s 200th year.
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Nancy
Wasson |
It took someone
like Nancy Wasson to remember another significant era in Orland’s
school history: It had been 50 years since the closing of the last
of the town’s 13 one-room schoolhouses.
Accordingly, Wasson
organized a 50-year reunion for anyone who had ever attended any of
Orland’s one-room schools.
As many as 191
people showed up, coming from as far as California, Texas and
Florida.
Orland’s schools
served a population of about 1,700 back in 1870. They tended to be
located about two miles apart.
Three of the old
schools are still standing, although now have been converted to
other purposes.
Two of the
buildings are now residences; the Bray School located on Castine
Road, and the Point School at Leach’s Point. Carpenter Frank Davis
has his business in the third remaining schoolhouse, next to the
Post Office in the village.
Nancy Wasson had
her own 50-year memory to mark in 2000: In 1950, the year of the
town’s sesquicentennial, she had been crowned Miss Orland. |
