Lewiston Schools

Lewiston Schools. . , Lewiston's first school was chartered and built on this site in 1892. It was heated by wood stoves and burnt to the ground in 1894. This present structure was erected in 1896 and became the second main school. In the interim, classes were held in the Congregational Church and the Town Hall. There were several other one room school houses North, East and West of town in outlying areas to serve the local residents as children and teachers had to walk to school to attend. , , This second school building consisted of 4 rooms on 2 levels. It had wide halls and this time around was heated by a modern wood fired furnace in the basement. There was a cloak room and laboratory on the first floor and two classrooms on the second floor for all grades. There was a small kitchen on the upper floor where teachers cooked a hot lunch every day for the students. There was a fence in the front yard to keep out farm animals that grazed freely around town at the time. , , School sessions opened every morning with a prayer and a reading from the Bible followed by a patriotic or fun folk song. School ended every day with organ music playing a lively march and students filed out in uniform order. If someone fell out of step with the music, they were pulled from the line and made to wait while the others finished the drill. , , Students were mostly girls, as the boys were sent to work on the farms, liveries, and mills at an early age. In 1904 there were a total of 33 students, 26 girls and 7 boys with two teachers teaching all grades. School sessions consisted of two terms, Spring and winter. Summers and Fall were reserved for farming and harvesting. In the winter, students often walked to school on homemade skis which were usually fashioned out of used barrel staves. , , Teachers then didn't have to achieve a secondary degree, instead they were required to take a short instructional course and pass an exam to get a teaching certificate. A county ordinance mandated that they were not to be paid "more than" $35 per month. After the mills closed, there were times when the Town coffers didn't have enough money to pay them at all, but they continued to teach anyway instead of abandoning their students. , , The school was in continuous operation until 1951 when a larger, modern school was built and is our Lewiston Elementary school today. This building then passed to the Free Masons Fraternal Organization. , , In the early years of Lewiston's founding, the Masons #418 lodge was formed in 1893 by 13 Master Masons and dues was $2 per year. Meetings were held upstairs in the Traver building on the Friday nights closest to the full moon, to afford safer nighttime travel. In the years after the mill closed, the lodge membership dwindled, and they relinquished their charter in the dark times of 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression. , , Approximately 20 years later, the current Lodge, #581, was formed in 1950 and they purchased this building after the school moved in 1951. , , Donated by the Jeff and Marsha McDonald family. , , The Lewiston Heritage Trail is a DDA project funded by private donors with period photos and historical text provided by the Lewiston Area Historical Society.