Waterford Historical Society (CT)

Jordan District Schoolhouse

​​The Jordan District Schoolhouse is the oldest surviving public building in Waterford.

The first mention of a school Jordan was recorded in describing the Manwaring land near the Jordan Baptist Church in 1737 ... "a plot of land with the Jordan Brook as its eastern boundary on which stands a schoolhouse."

Built by Jedediah Brown as a home in 1758, the gambrel-roofed house later served as the Jordan District School for a time during the 19th century, until it was replaced by the town’s first two-story brick school in 1857.

The schoolhouse features a gambrel roof, two rooms, a garret and two fireplaces. The granite steps at the front of the schoolhouse were once located at the West Neck School­ house in the 1800's.

Sometime in the mid-1800's, the schoolhouse was converted to a private home for the widow Eliza Gallup and her three young children; hence the plastered walls and other more "modern" features.

The building was moved to its present location in 1972 and was restored as a schoolhouse with assistance from the Connecticut State Historical Commission and the work of many Society members and volunteers. Then Governor Ella Grasso dedicated the completed building in1976 during the country's bicentennial.