Given that it was a rural school, it was likely also heavily used as a community hall, as this was the norm in most small communities at the turn of the twentieth century. This is one of the last remaining one room schools of its type in the region.
Built in 1884, the little school saw students come and go until the 1960s, at which time it was abandoned by New Brunswick School District No. 25, the inevitable result of school consolidation. Now beginning to sag on its rubble stone foundation, it is used as a storage building by the landowner. Apparently, artefacts from its school days which remain in the building include blackboards still attached to the wall, the old stove, and the hand-held school bell.
Nearby is the Gayton Covered Bridge, built in 1930. Both the bridge and the schoolhouse have been designated Local Heritage Sites by the Village de Memramcook.
Former Gayton School
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
Former Gayton School is a one-and-a-half storey wooden building located on Gayton Road, on the edge of the Memramcook River, in the village of Memramcook.
HERITAGE VALUE
Former Gayton School is designated a Local Historic Place for being representative of the old one-room schoolhouses found in Memramcook after the enactment of the Common Schools Act of 1871.
When it was built in 1884, the school was in School District No. 25, sometimes known as “Upper Memramcook,” which took in the former village of Gayton. It is one of the last schools of this type still standing in the region, and its style is typical of one-room schoolhouses. It has a steeply pitched gable roof and a façade with two entrances. Abandoned in the 1960s after the region’s school districts were consolidated, the former school is now used as a shed by a private owner. Although some of its openings have been boarded up, the original placement of the door and window openings has remained intact.
CHARACTER-DEFINING ELEMENTS
- its location very near the Memramcook River and the covered bridge spanning it;
- two entrance doors on the façade;
- steep-pitched gable roof;
- windows on the façade at ground level and on the upper floor;
- symmetrical arrangement of the rectangular windows on the two sides;
- items preserved inside the building, including the blackboards still attached to the wall, the old stove, and the hand-held school bell.
From Historic Places Canada