Charlie Farrell and the Vermont Schoolhouses Project

SHHS Presents: Charlie Farrell and the Vermont Schoolhouses Project-Tues. 9/16/25 Your program *South Hero Historical Society 2025-09-16* is available for viewing online at https://lcatv.org/south-hero-historical-society-2025-09-16

“Sometimes they would close a school for up to a decade and then reopen it,” Farrell said. “Go out and dust it all out, repaint it, put it back into use if the population suddenly increased in that district.” One of Farrell’s most trusted research tools has been the Beers atlases which are hand-drawn town maps from the 1870s. These maps show the thousands of school districts that once existed in Vermont. The program was held on Tuesday, Sept. 16th, 2025 at 7PM at the Worthen Library. The event was free and refreshments were served.

Charlie shared a slideshow of photographs and history he has collected since 2006 on all the old schoolhouses in Vermont with a special focus on the South Hero and Grand Isle County schoolhouses. Charlie is a former Folsom School and Grand Isle school Social Studies teacher whom you might have heard interviewed recently on Vermont Public talking about his unique quest to find every school in VT that ever was! Charlie says that old schoolhouses are easy to spot, if you know the signs. They are often right on the roadside and converted into private homes now. They often have a bank of windows.