The building

Historic photos suggest that the exterior of the schoolhouse was originally covered in stucco, which was considered fashionably functional in the 1920s and conveyed an appropriate sense of gravitas. Later (c. 1940) it was covered in wood clapboard siding, and later again (early 1980s) covered in vinyl.

A full-height projecting central gable with Palladian window expresses the then-popular Colonial Revival style. The original slate roof is still largely intact.

Inside, the walls and 12’ ceilings are covered in beadboard. A wide wooden staircase leads to two classrooms with a small hallway between that former students remember as a coat room with rugs for taking naps. Up another smaller set of stairs was the kitchen (remembered fondly by many) and the gym was in the basement.

Like most other Copake children, I began my education in the two room elementary school next to the Grange Hall on what is now called Empire Road. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Martha Wilson taught kindergarten, first grade, and second grade in one room, while Mrs. Walters taught third, fourth, and fifth in the other one. Between the two classrooms was the cloak room, where we left our coats and (in winter) galoshes, and where the rope to ring the bell on the roof hung.

Above the stairs which rose from ground level almost a storey to the classrooms, was a small kitchen where Mrs. Hotchkins prepared a soup and sandwich lunch. In the basement was a miniature gym where we went for recess if bad weather prevented going outdoors. The basement also had a room for the coal-burning furnace and a large coal bin. I spent many hours in the coal bin, where Mrs. Wilson sent me when I got into a scrape with one of my classmates who often used to disrupt the classroom.

— George Ashley, Copake History Facebook page