In Colonial times schools were set up primarily so that children could learn to read the Bible. At first, classes were held in the home of the person who served as teacher. This person was paid by the town for their services. In 1708 Enfield built its first one-room schoolhouse on Enfield Street. Whether in a home or a school, classes were held during the winter months when farm chores were lighter. For those attending a school, a wood-burning stove, water from a well, and an outhouse made classes bearable. By 1754 Enfield had five one-room schools, each serving its own part of town, known as a district. Those first five districts were North End, South End, Center, Scitico, and Wallop.
Over the coming decades as Enfield’s population grew and spread across all corners of the town, more schools and districts were needed. Existing districts were split, sometimes with part of the district retaining the original name, but the North End, South End, and Center district names were dropped. By 1869, there were fourteen districts: (1) Enfield Street, (2) Thompsonville, (3) Shakers, (4) King Street, (5) Wallop, (6) Jabbock, (7) Weymouth, (8) Scitico, (9) London, (10) Brainard, (11) East Wallop, (12) Bement’s Brook, (13) Thompsonville North, and (14) Hazardville. Each district managed its own school(s). Districts and their names continued to change as needed. Today there is only one district, the Enfield School District.
Prior to the 1850s, only students whose families could afford to send them to private academies received high school educations. The establishment of a high school on the second floor of the Old Town Hall was proposed in 1848, but it was not until 1856 that classes were held for the first time, and in a completely different location – Session Hall on the corner of Church and Chapel Streets. High School classes were also held in the Hazardville Grammar School starting in 1863 when that school opened. It wasn’t until 1869 that construction of a dedicated high school – the Thompsonville High School on North Main Street in Thompsonville – was approved. And it wasn’t until 1879 that the first diplomas were issued. Even then, most children did not attend high school; graduating classes were still made up of children of families who could afford to send them to school.
The first Catholic school in Enfield opened in 1872 when Sisters of Mercy arrived to staff the new Saint Joseph School. Later, the Felician Sisters established their Motherhouse in Enfield in 1933, followed by the Our Lady of the Angels Academy in 1944 (closed 1988). In 1965 the Felicians introduced the Montessori method of early childhood education to Enfield. Other private schools, some religious and others secular have since opened with varying degrees of success.
Major changes were coming with the approach of the twentieth century. Enfield’s schools were consolidated in 1892. With the consolidation, Thompsonville High School became Enfield Public High School in 1893. Teacher qualifications were upgraded. Free education was available by 1906, twenty-five years before it was required by the State of Connecticut. Enfield had the largest program for immigrants in Connecticut. The school system had achieved an enviable reputation, as this quote from the Principal of Wilbraham Academy’s 1896 illustrates: “The students from Hazardville all show that they received careful training… They were better equipped than the majority who came from towns of Massachusetts, Connecticut or New York.”
Enfield kept growing and so did the school system. The postwar “baby boom” put a strain on the system. Existing schools were too small and in most cases outdated or worn out. Population growth of 158% during the years from 1954-1970 required the construction of sixteen elementary schools, two junior high schools, and two senior high schools in just sixteen years. This remarkable response to a pressing need helped Enfield win an All-America City Award in 1970.
Following peak enrollment in the late 1970s to about 1980, the town found itself with too many schools, some of which were once again becoming obsolete, unable to provide the infrastructure needed for the twenty-first century. Surplus schools were sold, with Kosciusko Junior High becoming Asnuntuck Community College, Enfield and Fermi High Schools merged into a newly renovated and expanded Enfield High School and the empty Fermi High School building repurposed by the town for a number of uses, and some elementary schools sold or repurposed by the town as well.
