Old Forest Home School #2 / Garage for 131 Judd Falls Rd Ithaca

This small rectangular structure is an example of vernacular Greek Revival architecture applied to a non-residential building. There is a shallow gable roof with a wide frieze and returns. Classroom windows are two-over-two double hung sash and there is a small single pane window in each gable end. Wainscoting survives inside the building.

A deed recorded February 26, 1847, lists the transfer of the school house property from Jacob and Mary Cradit, who also owned the neighboring lot and building at 137 Judd Falls Road, to George Smith and Isaac G. Froshur, Trustees, School District #2. According to Albert Force, local historian, the school was built by Jacob Cradit after the land transfer. Cradit was a prolific local builder who constructed mill worker housing north of this property along Fall Creek. The new school was a district school, run by community-elected trustees.  This one-room school was replaced by the more substantial structure in 1921 at the location that had address 100 Judd Falls Road when house numbers were introduced [see https://tompkins.historyforge.net/buildings/10151].

The building appears on the map of Free Hollow in the 1866 Tompkins County Atlas, labeled "S. H. No.2". The roof of the building is visible in a photograph taken ca. 1890, under the label "Old School." After the one-room school was closed, this building was adapted as a garage for 131 Judd Falls Road [see https://tompkins.historyforge.net/buildings/8192].

Included in Forest Home Historic District with USN 10906.000178. To access the Building-Structure Inventory Form (sometimes referred to as the "Blue Form"), from which many of the details above are drawn, including the estimated year built, follow these Lookup Instructions.