Historic Buildings

Quogue’s One-Room Schoolhouse

Built in 1822, Quogue’s first schoolhouse is said to be the oldest surviving in Suffolk County. It was built a few years after public school districts were formed in New York State, in 1813.

Moved four times in its 198 years, it was relocated on the Quogue Library property in 2019.

Quogue's first schoolhouse, built in 1822, is open to the public during the summer months.
Schoolhouse, left, on Quogue Street, ca. 1875; Gardiner house, right. Photo by George Bradford Brainerd, courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum.
Schoolhouse on the Posts' property on Quogue Street, where it was used as a toolshed, 1900-1948.
Schoolhouse in 1949, when it was moved to its current location behind the Quogue Library.
Exhibit in the early days of the schoolhouse museum.
Schoolhouse, 2020, during renovation and in its new location on east side of library grounds.

ABOUT History of QHS 1822schoolhouseca1960

Originally, the schoolhouse stood at the edge of Quogue Street, at the foot of Old Depot Road (then called Post’s Road). When that road was opened in 1876, leading to the new train station, the schoolhouse was moved about 400 yards north on Old Depot.

The schoolhouse was in use from 1822 to 1893. During those years it was the only public building in Quogue and, when school was not in session, was used for Sunday school and mid-week prayer meetings.

In 1893, when a new, and larger, two-room school was built on ]essup Avenue (the site of today’s Quogue Fire Department), the 1822 one-room schoolhouse was closed and abandoned. It was rescued in the early 1900s by Abram Post, who moved it to his property just east of the Quogue Library, on the north side of Quogue Street. He used it as a workshop.

In 1948, the Post family donated the schoolhouse to the Library to be operated as a museum by the Library’s newly formed Historical Committee, forerunner of the Quogue Historical Society. It was moved to the Library grounds and, in 1949, opened as a museum. In 2019, to meet the needs of the Library’s expansion, the Schoolhouse made its fourth move to a location on the east side of the property.

Quogue’s schoolhouse appears to have been an exception to the rule for early one-room schoolhouses, which often seemed to be the shabbiest and most neglected building in a village. Quogue’s schoolhouse measures approximately 19’ by 32’, in the mid-range size, but has an entrance hall, which is unusual. Both rooms have barrel ceilings, also not typical.

Early 20th century Smokehouse

Early 20th Century Smokehouse

The smokehouse was essential to the way of life of earlier generations in Quogue. If you wanted to have meat at your meals all year long, you needed a smokehouse for curing. Every farmstead had one.

The Society’s shingled smokehouse originally stood behind Miss Mary Post’s house on Quogue Street (just west of Post Lane), one of Quogue’s six remaining 18th century houses. The smokehouse was donated to the Society in 1976 by the Potts family.