Photo courtesy of the Norfolk Historical Society

The North Middle School on Ashpohtag Road was one of eleven district schools that served children across Norfolk’s widely scattered settlement in the 19^th century. Most were one-room schoolhouses equipped with a pot-bellied stove, and teachers boarded in homes nearby. One notable student who began her education at the South End district school was Zilpah Polly Grant. A pioneer in the education of women, she went on to establish two female academies and was an influential mentor to Mary Lyon, who founded the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, later Mount Holyoke College. Another student educated in Norfolk was astronomer Asaph Hall, who discovered the moons of Mars in 1877. With the construction of the two-story brick Center School in 1915, the district schools eventually shut down. The North Middle School closed its doors in 1922, the last to do so. The restoration of this schoolhouse was undertaken by the Community Association in 1961.

–Ann Havemeyer