An Exhibit Featuring Cohanzie School Brings The Building Ever Closer to Demolition

May is National Preservation Month and this year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has adopted the theme, "See, Save, Celebrate!"

So it's not without irony that this month, Waterford Public Library is hosting an exhibition that offers an architectural and historical retrospective of Cohanzie School compiled by Town Historian Bob Nye.

You can see it, you can celebrate it, but there's scant hope of saving it. In fact, the very existence of the exhibition is evidence of that. As part of the town's agreement with the state, one of the final requirements before the 90-year-old school can be torn down is that there be an exhibit showing its history. 

"That exhibit is in the library now," said Nye. "The other requirement is that the school has to be documented. I'm also in charge of that. I expect to have that document ready in a few weeks. It's kind of ironic that this is National Historic Preservation Month and we're celebrating a demolition of a historic place." 

What Makes Cohanzie School Special?

Built in 1923, Cohanzie School was Waterford's third consolidated school, bringing together students from Lakes Pond, East Lake, Gilead and Cohanzie districts. The town appropriated $50,000 to build it and commissioned Waterford architect Louis H. Goddard, who had designed the Jordan School five years earlier, to design it.

The original building was a two-story, flat roofed brick building, 124 feet long and 57 feet deep, built in a Neo-Classical style. Although the school has been expanded with additions in the intervening years, the original structure remains pretty much the same. The only significant changes were the installation of triple-hung replacement windows and steel replacement front doors.  

"The most significant feature of the building is the main entry," writes Nye in the booklet that accompanies the photographs on display at the library. "From the outside, seven steps of finished granite lead to the entrance. ... In spite of the replacement front doors there is clearly an element of grandness about the entryway."

"From the exterior the projecting bays are like an embrace, directing the eye to the divided lights above the archway, then to the door —an invitation. Classic symmetry, simple elegance, the building speaks to a higher civic purpose. The 1923 Cohanzie School is indeed a testament to architect Louis H. Goddard —and to contractor Joseph A. St.Germain," Nye writes. "The building has worn well."

So if you stop in for the Waterford Public Library's 90th Birthday Celebration on May 25, take a moment to look at the exhibit. It could be your last chance to examine the 90-year-old Cohanzie School's storied past before the building itself is history.