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History of the Little Red Schoolhouse!Clymer District School Number 5, Clymer Center, NY 14724

During the early decades of the nineteenth century, the small one-room rural schoolhouse was beginning to emerge as a recognizable building type, one that exhibits general features and functional spaces, that recalls the early history of New York State's public education system. The small size and one-story, gable roof, rectangular massing with windows on three or four sides for light and ventilation, the interior floor plan with one large classroom, and the simple decorative detailing exemplify the classic one-room schoolhouse building type. The Clymer District School Number 5 appears to contain the suggested improvements to schoolhouse design that William A. Alcott, author of "Essay on the Construction of School-Houses" as published in 1832, which called for improvements and modifications to rural school buildings. Replacing the previous log structure of 1933 and built in ca.1853, the school was constructed by Rinaldo Braman, a local carpenter-joiner, who was hired to build the schoolhouse in the hamlet of Clymer Center. Stylistically, the schoolhouse displays venacular Greek Revival style features associated with mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth century. The building was placed on both the State Register of Historic Places on June 28, 1994 and the National Register of Historic Places on August 29, 1994. Detailed info can be found at www.littleredschoolhouse.us or at the Clymer, NY Historical Society.