The travel route of the one-room schools of the Guilford Township takes us this week south from Van Buren’s Corners to yet another corners – Windsor’s Corners which to all who are unfamiliar with the area is approximately 2 1/2 (county road 36) miles from Guilford Center. Once again this writer is referring to documentation written by the late Walter Ubele and is basically quoted as he wrote it.

“Among the several schools that were still teaching the Three R’s well into the 1930s was the school known as Winsor’s Corners School. This was the schoolhouse of District #16. It was still in operation as late as 1931, perhaps later.”

Not to be repetitive - the school was located at what is now the first crossroads of the Guilford Center-Norwich Turnpike. The area was well populated, considering the time. Families living within a short distance were the Winsors, the Youngs, the Gridleys, Sheltons and Reynolds. The Ireland family and the Weidman family also lived nearby. As a matter of fact, Syrena Ireland and Doris Weidman were students in that one school term ending June 1931.

Of course, there was studying, work, and learning, plus exams in this school as in any other. Scholarship was important! But there were good times, too. The biggest highlight of the School year in the District Schools was the Annual School Fair. The following is a direct quote from the 1931 issue of “The Pinnacle.”

“The first highlight of the school year was the School Fair. The sun was shining brightly when we got on the bus and went down to Guilford. The bus driver took the High School students to GHS (Union School) and then took us down to the fair. There we were allowed to do what we wanted to. We looked at the exhibits, among which were ducks, chickens, and vegetables. Some of these exhibits had been brought down by the pupils of our school. After we had looked at the exhibits, there were some races. Three of the girls from our school entered. One of us won a second prize and two of us took a third prize. At noon, we came together for a picnic lunch. In the afternoon we went to the movies. After that, Mr. Cass read off the names of the children who had won prized. At four o’clock, the bus came, and we went home feeling we had had a most delightful day.” This was written by Helen Bush, Syrena Ireland and Doris Weidman.

In spite of the slowly diminishing school population, the Winsor’s Corners School survived the closing of the smaller District School. It lasted until the end of the of the school year in 1935. That was when the final consolidation took place. It was then that the Guilford Central School opened its doors. At that time the State of New York mandated the closing of the smaller school, and told the Districts that no further individual District State Aid would be forthcoming. The Guilford Central School would be the focus of all such State Aid allowances. That was the end of the “Little Red Schoolhouse.”