With the motto, “Appreciating the Past Is Our Hope for the Future,” Patrimoine-Ascott-Heritage has spearheaded the preservation of the Little Hyatt One-Room Schoolhouse in the hamlet of Milby, south of Lennoxville.
“As a Charitable Non-Profit Organization, we have restored the Little Hyatt One-Room Schoolhouse, ca 1800, and erected two 4′ X 10′ double-sided Bilingual Interpretation Panels outside on our 1 1/2 acres of well groomed land. One is a Visual Interpretation Panel covering the history of the early Churches, Schools and Covered Bridges along with family genealogies of the first settlers. The second is a Virtual Interpretation Panel (Listening Station) that shows the evolution of the school building itself over the years on one side and the method used along with an illustration of how lands were surveyed. Here there is a Voice Module, a push button for French and one for English where the Little One-Room Schoolhouse will tell it’s story. We have also mounted three historical plaques. These along with the Panels are accessible 24/7 and the schoolhouse is open only when some member is on site, when a summer student is present or by appointment only.”
Documented to have been in use at least as far back as 1822, the school is the oldest surviving building in Milby, and one of very few from the early settlement years. There is reason to believe the building may date to as early as 1810, when it may have been used as a house of worship or as a meeting house for notaries.
Recognized municipally as a historic site, the schoolhouse is the only restored one-room school in historic Ascott Township, a vast territory with a current population of over 150,000.
