Finger Lakes history · regional story
Developing historyWhy a Skaneateles school had eight sides
The committee thought an octagon would fit the awkward site and seat more children for the money. A surviving building survey preserves its argument.
Research status
This history is still developing.
Parts of this account remain unresolved. Here is what the sources support, what is uncertain, and what we are looking for next.
About this review. Written and source-checked with AI assistance under an owner-authorized editorial process. This is not a personal review by Riley or an independent historian. Sources and unresolved questions are listed below; corrections are welcome.
- What the records establish
- Walter H. Cassebeer's report is signed September 17, 1936. The Library of Congress catalog also lists two photographs, five measured drawings and unprocessed field notes identified as FN-120. They give this investigation a useful trail beyond the written account.
- What remains uncertain
- We have read the survey's transcription, not the original minute book. One later note prints an appropriation date as February 14, 1959, despite the report's 1936 signature. We aren't silently changing that date or using it to date the financing. The report's suggestion that Quaker influence explains the two entrances is also not established here. Nothing in this account verifies today's ownership, condition or access.
- What we are researching next
- The next step is to locate the minute book and compare the votes and dates with the transcription. The field notes and measured drawings may help explain the design, but they have not yet been examined. School registers and accounts would be needed to bring teachers and pupils into the story.
In 1853, a proposal to build a new school in Skaneateles District No. 17 lost, six votes to eight. The minutes transcribed in a later Historic American Buildings Survey report show how the discussion eventually changed. A committee recommended eight sides because the site lay between two roads. It believed that shape offered better value than a square schoolhouse.
The district accepted a brick octagon with a basement and thirteen-foot sides. The survey gives 1859 as the construction year, but names neither architect nor builder. This is a story of recorded decisions, without a designer to credit.
The earlier arrangements were more modest. In the report's transcription of a December 1813 meeting, voters proposed renting Ira Barber's house for school. Pupils were to supply firewood or pay toward its purchase. Those entries belong to the district's earlier history, not to the octagonal building.
Sources
- Historic American Buildings Survey, District School No. 17, data pages 2–4, signed September 17, 1936: https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/ny/ny1000/ny1004/data/ny1004data.pdf
- Library of Congress, District School Number 17 catalog, HABS NY,34-SKA.V,3-; survey NY-226: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ny1004/