Rock School

There are Connecticut schoolhouses made of rock, but the Rock School in Colebrook is not one of them. It was named not for the materials that went into it but for the sizable rock across the street. To quote the sign out front:

Originally located in front of its large namesake boulder across the road, it was moved to its present location in 1971.

Used from 1779 until 1911, it had several different names as school districts were added to the growing town.

To our knowledge, this is the only colonial schoolhouse in Connecticut never to have been modernized. The Rock School has never had electricity or running water. It is an active museum, owned and operated by the Colebrook Historical Society. It is open to the public, and is used as a learning tool by Colebrook school children.

Colebrook, by the way, was the 76th of Connecticut's 169 towns to be incorporated. This has nothing to do with the schoolhouse or anything, I just happened to discover as I was writing this post that the Connecticut Secretary of the State's website has a list of all the towns in order of establishment, from first (Windsor) to last (West Haven.)

And while I'm on unrelated trivia, there's a village in Thompson called Fabyan. Fabyan. I think everyone running for statewide office in Connecticut should have to be able to name the locations of places like Fabyan and Stepney and Tashua. And no looking them up.

Minding the Store

Colebrook is a town of almost 33 square miles and about 1500 people. A large section of the Algonquin State Forest lies within its borders, and it feels even larger when you drive through it alone. You begin to wonder if it will ever end or if you'll be there, on a winding road in the Algonquin State Forest, for the rest of your days.

This is the Colebrook Store.  The story of the Colebrook Store is a typical one in Connecticut. Built in 1803, it expanded into the building above in 1812. (The original building remains, behind this one.) Over the years, ownership of the store changed hands many times. When it closed in 2007, the owner at the time wrote a "caustic article in the Winsted Journal blaming the town and in particular the town government for not supporting her store." While it lasted, it was the oldest continuously operating general store in the state; now it was just another empty historic building.

But then there was an unexpected plot twist. The Colebrook Store reopened in 2013. It's a functioning store again, selling, according to its Facebook page, the "largest selection of everything in town, except stamps."

Luckily the Post Office - like the Town Hall, the church, and the Historical Society - is right across the street.