Foster Preservation Society

This photo gallery contains pictures and stories of the many historic School Houses of Foster.

Please scroll down to see photos and descriptions.


 

District # 1 - Cranberry

Cranberry School House

 

Located on Old Plainfield Pike, this school house had been abandoned as of 1964.

 


 

District # 2 - Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon School House

 

 

 

Located on north side of Plainfield Pike near the intersection of Howard Hill Road.  This photo of the foundation was taken in 1975.

 


 

District # 3 - Moosup

Moosup Valley School House

 

  

 

Moosup Valley Schoolhouse/Vestry School/Tyler Free Library (Moosup Valley) (1811, 1900, et seq. ff236): The one story, one room schoolhouse with paired entrances and raised flat lintels, built in 1811 on land given for that purpose by Isaac Blanchard, was closed in 1952.  In 1965 the structure, built just across the road  in 1900 to house a library given by local historian and storekeeper Casey B. Tyler was moved and joined to the schoolhouse by a large modern addition, The whole building was then opened as Tyler Free Library.  The schoolhouse is sometimes called the Vestry School, because Christian church services and Sunday school were held here in the mid-19th century.

 


 

District # 4 - Dorrance

Dorrance School House

 

 

Located at the corner of Plain Woods and Kennedy Roads, as of 1964 it had been converted into a dwelling.  Picture taken in 1978.

 


 

District # 5 - Howard Hill

Howard Hill School House

 

  

 

Located on Howard Hill Road, this school house was gone as of 1964.

 


 

District # 6 - Harrington Road

Janglebox (or Johnson) School House

 

  

 

Located at the corner of Gold Mine and Harrington Roads, this school house was gone as of 1964.  The picture on the right is of the remaining foundation taken in 1973.

 


 

District # 7 - Clayville

Jenks School House

 

 

Jenks Schoolhouse (1647) (#373): Located on Foster Center Road near the intersection of Route 102.  This small, one room school house, three bays wide and two bays deep, was used until school consolidation took place in 1952.  A 1-story addition was built at a right angle to the schoolhouse when it was converted into a residence in the 1970’s.

 


 

District # 8 - Hemlock

Foster Center School House

 

 

Built before 1824 and remodeled several times since then in the 1950s through the 1970s for use as the Foster Center Library.

 


 

District # 9 - Flat Rock

Flat Rock School House

 

Located on South Killingly Road between Balcom and Johnson Roads.  The school house appears on an 1862 map of the Town, however district #9 seems to have ceased to exist and does not appear on the 1870 map of school districts.  The school house was gone as of 1964.

 


 

District # 10 - Union

Wood School House

 

 

 

Located on South Killingly Road, the school house was abandoned as of 1964.  Photos in the center and on the right were taken in 1971.

 


 

District # 11 - Ponagansett

Ponagansett School House

 

 

This schoolhouse was located on Central Pike, just west of Ram Tail Road, school house was abandoned as of 1964.  Photo on the left is undated, photo on right was taken in 1976. 


 

District # 12 - Rounds

Rounds School House

 

Located on Central Pike, west of Foster Center Road, the school house was gone as of 1964.

 


 

District # 13 - Snagwood

Snagwood School House

 

Located on Route 6 east of Boswell, the school house was gone as of 1964.

 


 

District # 14 - Hopkins Mills

Hopkins Mills School House

 

 

Hopkins Mills Schoolhouse (Hopkins Mills) (c. 1820) (#66): Located on Old Danielson Pike, west of the Ponagansett river. This one story schoolhouse with open belfry astride its gable roof has two widely separated entrances one now a window with a double-hung window between them on its north-facing gable front.  A semi-circular fan-shaped window in the gable peak and a one story ell at right angles at the rear were added when the schoolhouse was closed 1952 and remodeled for use as a residence.  The schoolhouse occupies a commanding hillside site above the road reached by a straight steep flight of stone steps it was built on or near the site of an earlier c. 1797 school.

 


 

District # 15 - Harmony

Harmony School House

 

 

 

Located on East Killingly Road.  Now converted into a house.

 


 

District # 16 - Maple Rock

Maple Rock School House

 

 

Located on Maple Rock Road just off of Route 101.  The school house had burnt down as of 1964.

 


 

District # 17 - Roger Williams

Roger Williams School House

 

 

Located on Winsor Road at the approximate location of the NIKE site , just off of Route 101, the school house was gone as of 1964.  Photo is of the remaining foundation taken in 1975.

 


 

District # 18 - Mount Hygeia

Mount Hygeia School House

 

   

 

Mount Hygeia Schoolhouse (c. 1840) (ff68): This typical one story, one room schoolhouse, with paired entrances in the south gable end, is the only unremodelled schoolhouse in Foster and one of seven schoolhouses surviving in any form, In the last half of the 19th century Foster had eighteen school districts, By the time of school consolidation in 1952, however, only seven schoolhouses remained in use; Mount Hygeia was one of them, A 1755 deed for a schoolhouse lot in the Mount Hygeia area is the earliest known reference to any school or school building in Foster.  Photo taken in 2006.

 


 

District # 19 - Shippee Schoolhouse

Shippee School House

 

 

 

Located at the intersection of Shippee School House and East Killingly Roads, the school house was gone as of 1964.  The picture above is from and undated print.

 



 

MODERN SCHOOLS in FOSTER

 

Fogarty Memorial School (NIKE site)

 

 

Pictures taken in 1989.

 


 

Captain Isaac Paine School

 


Foster Preservation Society

P.O. Box 51

Foster, RI 02825

Phone (401) 397-5687