The Roxbury Central School

The Roxbury Central School. . , The Roxbury Central School (RCS), is a Tudor Revival style building symbolizing the period of centralization in the development of the New York educational system. The facility was designed by Albany architect Harold O. Fullerton. Built as a Public Works Administration project between 1939 and 1940, the building replaced a 1913 two story building and eight one-room rural school houses. The school design reflects the desire of the village to continue the aesthetic preferences of the Gould family and was chosen to harmonize with the monumental Gothic style church, built one block away in 1892., The growth and subsequent decline of one-room and rural schools paralleled changes in state educational law. In the nineteenth century, New York State enacted laws which provided for compulsory education, common school funding, uniform curricula and improved educational facilities. By the 1920s these issues and declining enrollment in many rural school districts caused state educators and lawmakers to focus on centralization and consolidation in the development of the educational system. , In 1938 the Roxbury Central School obtained a P.W.A. grant of $133,650 toward the total school cost of $297,0o00 and hired Harold O. Fullerton to design the school and Rathgeb-Walsh of Port Chester, New York to construct ft. The 1913 two story building and two houses south of it were demolished to make room for the new school., The Main Street Historic District in Roxbury appears largely as it did upon the completion of the Roxbury Central School. A new addition to expand capacity at the school was completed in 1997., The Roxbury Central School, 1895 (above) and 1913 (below)