Hauppauge History: The First Schoolhouses

The first Hauppauge students were educated in a small, one-room schoolhouse. The local education system of the 1800s and early 1900s bared little resemblance to today’s school district.

Noel Gish, a former Hauppauge High School teacher, wrote that residents of the hamlet formed an article of association to establish an educational building in 1804 in “Smithtown New York 1660 – 1929: Looking Back Through the Lens.” Families purchased shares in the school in order for their children to be educated

The first school in Hauppauge was located on Townline Road, slightly east of the Hauppauge United Methodist Church, according to

The building measured 13 feet by 16 feet, and also served as the meeting place for the founding members of the Methodist religious society before the church was built in 1806.

Students of the first school were from the hamlet’s founding families with last names such as and Hubbs. By 1834, there were 58 children ranging in age from five to 16, according to Wood, and the academic year lasted six and one-third months.

Wood wrote that in early times children also attended the school every other Saturday. The weekend day would be spent with students cutting firewood and the teacher sweeping the room. When the building was replaced, Thomas Wheeler Conkling, who then owned , moved the structure to his property and used it as a carpenter’s shop.

In 1840, a new schoolhouse was built on Schoolhouse Lane and Townline Road, according to Jack Marr’s edition of Wood’s history book. Today, this spot would be the west lane of Veteran’s Highway east of the Carvel’s. This building remained standing until 1893 until it was replaced with a newer building. The second schoolhouse that was located on this spot had a sign over the window that read “District School No. 6.”

A four-room schoolhouse was constructed on the spot and remained in use until 1963. When the building was demolished in 1965, the Hauppauge Fire Department set fire to it as part of a training drill, according to Images of America: Smithtown by Bradley Harris, Kiernan Lannon and Joshua Ruff.

The early schoolhouses of Hauppauge only offered first to eighth grade. Students who wished to continue their education would attend either Smithtown High School or Islip High School. The Hauppauge School District we know today didn’t begin to develop until the population grew in the hamlet after World War II leaving the little schoolhouses behind.