Shelter Island Reporter photo quiz: What is that? Nov. 29, 2024

If you know, let us know. Send your responses to [email protected] or phone 631-275-1859.

No one weighed in on last week’s photo (see below), which is of the bell on the school’s lawn facing North Ferry Road just past Wilson Circle. A plaque at the base of the bell reads: “Bicentennial Presentation Of Original School Bell 1976 S.I.P.T.A.”

According to Ralph J. Duvall’s “The History of Shelter Island,” the original schoolhouse was on North Ferry Road, just beyond Duvall Road heading south, where a marker now stands indicating the spot. The school was rebuilt after a fire in the winter of 1828 destroyed it.

A small account book was uncovered by Mr. Duvall, showing receipts and expenditures of the school district, with a note on February 28, 1828: “To Benjamin Glover’s bill, to building a School House, $428.48.” Mr. Glover, a master builder on Shelter Island, also constructed the Presbyterian Church.

“The schoolhouse was enlarged in 1884 and again in 1900,” Mr. Duvall writes. “After the old building was abandoned by the school, it was used for every conceivable purpose that was lawful, except as a schoolhouse. For many years the town used it as a place for holding its meetings, and so it became known as the ‘Old Town Hall,’ and that name brings recollections of good times enjoyed in days gone by.”