Darlington Schoolhouse — Havemeyer Hall

Darlington Schoolhouse — Havemeyer Hall. New York-New Jersey Trail Conference Headquarters. In the 1800s, wealthy entrepreneurs from New York City established farm estates in the Ramapo Valley, employing so many people that the properties grew into small hamlets. As the number of children increased, estate owners Alfred B. Darling and Theodore Havemeyer agreed to fund a new schoolhouse for their community., The Darlington Schoolhouse, or Havemeyer Hall, was designed by Havemeyer's architect, Dudley Newton of Newport, Rhode Island, and built in 1890-1891. Working in the 19th century tradition of Arts and Crafts Architecture and taking inspiration from H. H. Richardson's Romanesque and the Stick styles, Newton's design used local materials in a functional plan with a single room on the first floor for one teacher with eight grades of students and a second floor community hall. Classes in the building continued until 1943, and subsequent uses included a dance school and carpentry shop. Recognized as "New Jersey's most architecturally significant schoolhouse" by the state's Historic Preservation Office, the building is on the National Register of Historic Places., In 2007, the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference and Township of Mahwah purchased the schoolhouse as headquarters for the Trail Conference, which raised funds to restore and expand the building. Donations came from public and private grants, Trail Conference members, and the community. Renovation of the building and construction of an addition took place in two phases, from March 2011 to March 2015., Funding has been provided in part by the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust, administered by the New Jersey Historic Trust/State of New Jersey, and the Bergen County Historic Preservation Trust Fund, a part of the Bergen County Open Space, Recreation, Floodplain Protection, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund Program.