The Factory Schoolhouse
The Factory School has been privately preserved and publicly enjoyed for over half a century thanks to a philanthropic project dedicated to extending the functional life of a local landmark. Neither a nonprofit organization nor a commercial enterprise, the school has been managed since 1969 by the family of its last clerk, Frances Brink, who purchased the building upon the district’s closure and made it available to local organizations, youth groups and public officials - on demand and free of charge - until her death in 1986. Brink’s daughter-in-law, Nancy Buyce, preserved the building for the next thirty years, eventually opening it to the public as “The Old School Museum” and hosting a reunion for its surviving pupils, teachers and their descendants on the 140th anniversary of its construction in 2013, an event attended by over 100 people.
The Old School Museum closed with the death of Nancy Buyce in 2015. The sesquicentennial of the building in 2023 presents an opportunity for the third-generation owners to begin a new chapter in the school’s history by rehabilitating the structure as a center for public history with an active slate of public programming. 150 years after its construction, the building will rebrand as “The Factory Schoolhouse” after the building’s colloquial name and original mission, with a broader educational remit to serve as a center for researching, recording, preserving, exhibiting, presenting and teaching the working class history of the southern Adirondacks.
To ensure that the Factory Schoolhouse survives well into the 21st century, we are undertaking a capital rehabilitation project from 2023-2025, funded in part by a generous Adirondack Rural Revitalization Program grant from Adirondack Architectural Heritage. Planned improvements include a new and more accessible front staircase, the restoration of the building’s fieldstone foundation, and the repair and repainting of the school’s original clapboard siding. To contribute to our sesquicentennial crowdfund, please click the “Donate” button above. To submit a construction bid or learn more about the site, please click the banner below.
Now accepting construction bids
Now accepting construction bids