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Swan's Island: Six miles east of ordinary

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Minturn Schoolhouse

Minturn Schoolhouse, Swan's Island, ca. 1930
Minturn Schoolhouse, Swan's Island, ca. 1930
Swan's Island Historical Society

The Minturn Schoolhouse was built in 1899, probably replacing an earlier school at the same location. There were two floors to the school, with the older students upstairs. Both floors were heated by a wood stove in the winter. Minturn student Marion Stinson recalls: "...we’d take a big potato and put it in a coffee can, you know how coffee used to come about that high in the cans? We’d put it on the stove and cook it."

Children on the steps of the Minturn Schoolhouse, Swan's Island, ca. 1933
Children on the steps of the Minturn Schoolhouse, Swan's Island, ca. 1933
Swan's Island Historical Society

There was a window upstairs, and the rooms were equipped with desks, a blackboard, and a closet. The school outhouse changed location over the years, and at one point its runoff froze on the rocks below. A former student recalls: "Yep, and ‘course the stuff used to run right down the rocks and everything and in the wintertime we’d slide down it. We didn’t know it was pee!"

Minturn Schoolhouse in disrepair, Swan's Island, ca. 1965
Minturn Schoolhouse in disrepair, Swan's Island, ca. 1965
Swan's Island Historical Society

The Minturn Schoolhouse closed when the three island schools consolidated into one in 1951. By the 1960s, the schoolhouse was in disrepair and was eventually torn down.


Steven Gardner

Steven Gardner

"The Minturn Schoolhouse reminds me of more old houses and houses off-island." Steven is in fifth grade. Steven was born on Swan's Island, lived in Florida for three years, and moved back when he was four. Steven loves to bottle hunt and find old stuff from a long time ago.

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Swan's Island: Six miles east of ordinary    |    PO Box 12, 451 Atlantic Road, Swan's Island, Maine 04685    |    (207) 526-4330    |    Contact Us 
In partnership with the Maine Memory Network    |    Project of Maine Historical Society