Big plans in store for Pittston’s historic Colburn School as deed returns to town (2024)

PITTSTON — The Colburn School, a one-room schoolhouse from the 1800s, holds a special place in Louise Kruk’s heart.

Her grandmother Grace Witham taught there, and six of Kruk’s eight brothers went to school there.

And now, with the school’s deed back in the town’s hands, Kruk, president of the Pittston Historical Society, is hoping to secure grants to fix up the school and eventually make it a community gathering place once again.

“I really love that little school,” Kruk said.

The Old Colburn School was built in 1815 and served as a one-room school house until 1964. It’s located off of Route 27 next to the Maj. Reuben Colburn House, where Col. Benedict Arnold acquired the boats used to sail to Quebec in 1775 to attack the British, and it’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

The school belonged to the Pittston Historical Society for nearly 40 years until March, when residents voted in the annual town meeting to put the school in the hands of the town. By doing this, Kruk said, it will help secure the grants needed to fix the school up.

“I would like to bring it back to where we were 20 years ago when we’d host and have meetings there,” she said. “My dream is, and this is Louise Kruk speaking, is to get grant money where we could have electricity there again, or a Porta Potty to host people. There are a million things in my mind. Art shows, a place where we could display art, or community outreach where we could have the seniors meet there for coffee.”

To get the school there, the historical society, a mere team of around 14, needs community support.

They need a grant writer and someone who can help make the constructional fixes to the beams and structure of the school. Since the building is on the National Register of Historic Places, it has to meet specific construction standards to maintain the historic value of the building.

The building made the list for its educational value, but also for its architecture in representing a 19th-century rural school building. According to the National Register of Historic Places, when the Colburn School was in use, there were around 4,000 one-room school houses in Maine, which dropped down to 226 in the 1960s due to 20th-century school consolidation efforts between towns.

Michael Goebel-Bain, national register and survey coordinator for the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, doesn’t know how many one-room school houses are still standing in the state today, or on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine. They are rare, he said, but still added consistently to the list, with the most recent in Alna.

The process to get on the list can take up to a year, Goebel-Bain said, and having the buildings on the list can be helpful for the state or municipality for future planning — or simply to know the significance of why the building is there.

“It helps identify them and you know, recognize its significance,” he said. “The nomination form (for the buildings) helps identify important features if something where to happen. The main thing is if some projects are going through, like from the Department of Transportation to widen a highway, we have the building identified and people are aware and we can get as much consideration as we can get.”

Kruk feels confident her tiny, close knit town will come through, especially with the amount of newcomers that have moved into the community.

“They are part of Pittston now,” she said. “They are here and it’s good to learn about things here and be a part of it. To put the exhibit on and show kids what it was like to go to school back then. I hope we get back to hosting families and kids. We need more people to help preserve the building.”