Ashford Academy

It’s Academic at This Point
Ashford Academy, Ashford
November 2025

Connecticut museum visit #550.

Yeah. It really is academic at this point.

What is?

One room school house museums. I love visiting Connecticut’s museums and I love writing this website. A website that began in 2006. A time when the selfless and wonderful people at the Ashford Historical Society started rehabbing the stately Ashford Academy in the center of town.

But I gave up.

Gave up trying to get inside. I most note that you can get inside now, in 2025 and (presumably) beyond. I just need to start prioritizing things for this site if I’m to “do everything” in the state and scheduling my life around a drive to Ashford to see this room just isn’t necessary.

Especially since I’ve been inside a dozen or more one-room school houses in Connecticut. And while they’re all the same, it must be said that Ashford’s is certainly one of – if not the – most attractive ones in the state.

The entrances are flanked by wide paneled pilasters and topped by narrow projecting cornices. The interior consists of a relatively narrow vestibule area, with classroom spaces on both the first and second floors. Original features include the wide floorboards and simple window trim. It has unusually fine Federal period detailing for a school of its period, which were generally more utilitarian in appearance.

It’s surprisingly fancy for such a (still!) rural town. It was built in 1825 and served as a school until 1949. For its first 50 years, it was used for both public and private (academy) classes before becoming a totally public school.

I’d driven past it countless times on my CTMQ adventures. But this time I decided I would stop and peek inside, try to get a decent picture of the interior, and call it a visit. And here we are.

It’s got all the usual things; the old desks and slate board and… that’s pretty much it. I don’t see a pot belly stove! I assume some of the usual text books and teacher pay scale sheet are put away for protection for the 364 days per year the building is locked up.

What I did see was a few little signs in the “narrow vestibule.” Here they are:

Computer! Enhance!

Goshdarnit. I can’t read them. I cant tell they are little blurbs about the one-room school houses of Ashford’s past. There are a couple of the required creepy pictures of blank faced children, but mostly explanations of what little schools were where and when they were there.

The “there” that was “here” used to be totally happening, insofar as old timey Ashford was concerned. This area with the school was the once thriving town center. The taverns, church and businesses which were once located here have almost entirely been razed, leaving just this school building as the remaining structure.

As I made my way around it, I noticed the outhouse. I cannot find the story for the life of me, but apparently the restoration of this privy in 1990 made the New York Times for some reason. It’s a nice outhouse.

And that’s it! Maybe someday I’ll make the effort to step inside here, but I think we can all agree it’s really not very necessary – unless they allow visitors upstairs to second floor, as that’s pretty rare as far as these things go.

Ashford Historical Society (Facebook)
CTMQ’s Museum Visits