Old Rock Schoolhouse

The Rock Schoolhouse is a beautiful old schoolhouse that still stands strong and is located at 158 Rock Schoolhouse Road in Bristol, ME. The Parks and Recreation Department keep the grounds maintained and visitors are welcome. The inside of the Schoolhouse is currently closed to visitors due to no longer having a volunteer to attend to it.  We will reopen it to visitors when we are able to get a volunteer that is interested in helping teach Bristol history through the building.  If you are interested in volunteering at the Rock Schoolhouse in 2024, please contact the Parks and Recreation office at 207-563-1800.

This one room schoolhouse, built in 1835, is the oldest of its type in Maine. According to the Town Report of February 20th, 1895, there were then twenty school districts in Bristol. This was known as #13, Rock House District and was valued at sixty dollars. It had three terms of school - eight weeks in the spring, six in the autumn and ten in the winter. The teacher's salary was $25 for terms one and two, and $28 for the third (or winter) term. Also, board was provided. The teacher was boarded at the homes of the pupils. The length of time at each home was determined by the number of children in the family. The number of students in a family was the basis, too, for each family's contribution of wood for heating the school.

On April 18th, 1840, a meeting of Bristol's citizens voted that "each family shall find his part of the wood and shall board the schoolmaster and mistress his proportion of the time." The vote was taken immediately following the construction of one of Maine's first classic one-room schoolhouses. The building now known as the Old Rock Schoolhouse had been conceived in the minds of concerned citizens during a meeting on October 18th at the home of David Bryant.

That same week Patrick Lawler was chosen agent for the year and it was voted to have the village school be held on David Bryant's porch until details of building could be ironed out. At the same session, voters decided that the schoolhouse would be built of rock and would be "22' x 22' on the inside". Finally, it was decided to "set said house on land owned by Nelson Fossett near an oak tree standing in the road." Men's wages were set at $1 a day with ox teams at hire for 50 cents and a "cart or drag" to be paid 25 cents daily. The Nelson Fossett land was located in what is now a heavily wooded area of the town known as Sodom. Stone to build the school was gleaned from everywhere. Stone walls lining pastures were robbed and several granite blocks were hauled by oxen from active quarries at nearby Round Pond. The Rock Schoolhouse was used through 1899. After repairs were made, it was opened again in 1912 for two terms.

Bristol School Teachers (Date of birth and death if known)

Emily Myers Hatch1824-1892
Sally Myers Fossett1833-1902
Mary Morton Fossett1845-1918
Laura Myers McIntyre1810-1933
Elisha Crooker1836-1912
Amanda Ford Blunt1836-1917
Benjamin Hinds1838-1908
Mary Harding Carter1842-1917
George Coc1812-1896
Maria Cox1848-1905
Rockie Cox Yates1850-1888
Josephine Oram Huston1851-1923
Lydia Bryant Erskine1851-1899
Bessuca Fuller Kelley1852-1905
Carrie HInds Thompson1852-1876
Nellie Hatch Kelsey1876-1933
Carrie Hatch Holden1855-1932
Elida Palmer Luce1856-1936
Octavia Little Erskine1858-1927
Isa Robinson Page1856-1904
Julia Barker1861-1929
Grace Hatch1867-1944
Abbie Bearce Goudy1865-1922
Nellie Genthner Humphrey1962-1939
Kate Fountain Sproul1865-1908
Mary Fountain Gamage---------------
Carrie Woodbury Webber1869 -------
Lillian Fossett Aulis---------------
Elizabeth Erskine Crook---------------
Grace Crokett Humphrey1872-1936
Benjamin Tukey1811-1863
Adelaide Day Bryant1836-1883
Eveline Yates1844-1870
Bethiah Keen Weston1822 -------
Elizabeth U. Yates---------------
Emily Robbins Paine---------------
Celeste Creamer Winchenbach---------------
Abbie Keen Kent1864-1935
Sara Keene Weston1870 -------
Anna Coggins McGuire---------------
Emma Carter1874-1897
Carrie Nichols---------------
Hanna Woodbury Furman---------------
Augusta Fossett1877-1903
Belle Golden Kimball---------------
George Hoffses Schroeder---------------
Nellie Fossett Moon---------------
Hattie Poole King---------------

* Tobacco Free Parks Policy: All Bristol Parks facilities are tobacco free effective May 4th, 2012. These facilities include: Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park, Pemaquid Beach and Park, Pemaquid Lighthouse Park, Bristol Swimming Hole, Ellingwood Park and Visitors Center and the Rock Schoolhouse.