Indian Rock Schoolhouse

The school is situated on a lot on the north side of the road, at the north fringe of the developed area of the hamlet. The surrounding terrain is level, mostly open and rural. Amenia's Rural Cemetery is across the curve in the road. To the west is an altered 18th-century house, with an early 19th-century gambrel-roofed farmhouse on the east. Maplebrook School, a private institution for children with learning disabilities, is to the north, across a meadow. The building is in the southwest corner of the lot, from the road at the end of a short gravel driveway. It is a one-story timber-framed structure on a stone foundation with board-and-batten siding and a steeply pitched gable roof shingled in cedar shake. All elevations except the north have two double-hung six-over-six sash windows. Pointed hoods shelter those on the south. In the gable field is another pointed hood with a sign saying "Indian Rock Schoolhouse", giving the period of its use in smaller type. Another, smaller sign identifying the property is in the ground near the southeast corner. At the northeast and northwest corners are entrances with a glass transom. The north (rear) elevation has two large barn-style doors. Inside the schoolhouse there are remnants of the original heating system, the flue and lower section of the brick chimney. Original low wooden wainscoting, with some initials carved into it, remains along the walls, which also have some of the original plaster and blackboards. Channels on the floor, where desks and seats were affixed to it, also remain, as do some remnants of the original vestibules in the otherwise open interior. ==History==

The school was built around 1850, possibly slightly earlier. A decade before New York, following a broad education-reform movement of the time, had issued standard plans for a rural one-room schoolhouse with separate entrances for boys and girls to a single open room inside. Many adopted stylistic features of the early Gothic Revival movement such as steeply pitched roofs and board-and-batten siding, as reflected in a popular 1870 pattern book. It is the only one of the 12 schools built in Amenia to remain largely intact from its original construction. and maintains a blog of oral history of the school from former students, now mostly senior citizens. It now has over a hundred members. Maplebrook School has used the building for community service projects for its students. It continues to host events in conjunction with local public schools, such as an Arbor Day picnic and Summer Sundays. Students from local day care centers have even had classes in the building, using slates and other period equipment. ==See also==