Officials envision replica of lost structure

As her finger slowly moved over each face in a 65-year-old photo of 10 children inside a classroom, Maryanne Cavaccini began reeling off names.

Her cousin Joanie, Evelyn, Marie, Billy, Peter, Lenny. She named three more before stopping at a little girl in a print dress, a second grader. "Yeah, that's me," she said.

Memories, photos, news clippings and an empty lot are all that remain of the Little Red Schoolhouse, which stood for 129 years at Route 9D and Red Schoolhouse Road in Fishkill, just north of Beacon. At the time it closed in 1959, when its veteran teacher retired, the one-room structure held seven grades - "pre-first" to six. Students continued their education in the Beacon school district.

The building was torn down in 1971, but there is talk of building a replica - if anyone can figure out who owns the property. A title search by the state in 1977 failed to identify the owner, but the Town of Fishkill has renewed the effort so it can preserve the site for visitors. "The more attractions we have, the more we can celebrate our history," said Town Supervisor Ozzy Albra.

The school's history began with its construction in 1830 on property owned by the Verplanck family, large landholders who also donated the property for Stony Kill Farm, which sits across Route 9D. Elizabeth Travis, a Glenham native and Beacon High School graduate , was the teacher for 47 years, from 1912 until it closed in 1959. With children in seven grades occupying one room, Travis called one class at a time to a front bench. "When she was doing a lesson with one grade, we had to be quiet and do our studies," said Cavaccini, then known as Maryanne Greggo.

Cavaccini entered as a kindergarten student in 1956, when the Little Red Schoolhouse may have been the only remaining one-room school in Dutchess County. Her brother Frank also attended the school, which drew students from Baxtertown, Red Schoolhouse and Stony Kill roads, as well as Route 9D.

On Tuesday (Feb. 25), Cavaccini recalled the DeSoto that her teacher drove, the potbelly stove that provided heat and a swing students hung to fling themselves into a pond. One newspaper report credited Travis with saving the structure from a fire by organizing a bucket brigade of students armed with water from a stream.

A truck filled with candy once overturned outside the school, spilling its contents and drawing students outside, said Cavaccini. "We were screaming, 'We got the candy,' " she said. "The teacher came out screaming, 'You can't do that.' Well, we did it."

When the school closed, Cavaccini was about to enter the third grade. She transferred to South Avenue Elementary and later graduated from Beacon High School. Her career included stops in the San Francisco area and jobs at Central Hudson, the Stewart Air National Guard Base and the Castle Point VA Medical Center.

Five years after the schoolhouse was demolished, Elizabeth Travis attended a ceremony marking the installation of a sign made by students at Glenham Elementary School in Fishkill, which is part of the Beacon district. She died in 1984 at Highland Hospital in Beacon.

Last week, a photo posted on Facebook showed students standing outside the school. It drew nearly 100 comments, including from Cavaccini and people whose parents or other relatives attended. Someone remembered their family buying strawberries in the summer from Travis, who ran a farm with her husband. Many of the commenters denounced the decision 54 years ago to demolish the school.

"That could have been a historical building," said Cavaccini.