Hill_and_Plain

"Noon Recess" (publ. Aug. 23 1939) shows the interior of an old time country school, in this case New Milford's Hill and Plain District School, much like those still in use in many parts of the country well into the 20th century. The Hill and Plain district got its name from the steep hills and the stretch of fertile flat land which, according to an old local rhyme, was called "Pinch Gut Plain" and was where "Old Sol Hill he built a mill."

The school, still standing by Sullivan Road, was probably in use for more than a hundred years. An immense rock rose directly behind it and was a grand "sliding down place" before or after "lessons." During noon recess, the boys played ball in a field across the road and the girls tended a rock garden that was the pride of the school. In a poem published in New Milford in 1923 entitled "The Old District School," Charles N. Hall described what is believed to have been the old Hill and Plain School. In the first two stanzas, he wrote,

It stood beside the public way,
This school house old and brown,
Once painted red, but many a day
Of summer sun and Winter's fray
Had toned its color down:
While each worn board the skill displayed

Of Yankee youth and jack-knife blade.
The yard, once loud with merry din,
With weeds was overgrown,
No busy hum came from within
Where childish voices once had been,
The little swarm had flown;
And all deserted stood, at last
This relic of a useful past.

Within the school itself, a water pail stood by the door, and as the years passed various boys had the task of filling it from a cold spring nearby. The tall stove gave plenty of heat in the winter, especially for those whose desks were close to it; the bucket and shovel for removing ashes can be seen near the door, under the gramaphone table and the blackboard. On warm spring days fresh breezes, sweet with the scents of blossoms and pine woods, drifted in through the open windows.

Old district schools such as this were gathering places for the nearby community, as people'e interests tended to be centered close by their homes, within walking distance. A neighbor, sharing a memory of the old Hill and Plain School, described pasing the school one evening jest before Christmas: the windows were glowing with lights from the Christmas tree as the neighborhood gathered for the annual Christmas Party; children, practicing their songs before the caroling, could be heard whenever the door opened, and even the snow round about the school had a warm, soft glow.