19th century Queensbury — Gurney Lane school house

Voters in Queensbury School District 16 opted to build a new school at the present site of the Gurney Lane School, rather than build at a new location.

“The meeting was held yesterday afternoon and was the largest ever held in the district. By a vote of forty-one to twenty, it was decided to retain the present site,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Sept. 19, 1894.

Warren County School Commissioner Roxie Tuttle had condemned the current school building in August.

A subsequent resolution to spend up to $700 — the equivalent of $25,000 in 2024 dollars — to construct a new school building passed by a vote of 40–0.

Joseph Reed, Andrew Moore and H.G. Titus were appointed to a committee to prepare a renovation plan.

Construction began in late fall.

“John Hall of Glens Falls, A. M. Wilkie, and Al Brown are building the new schoolhouse in the Gurney District. It looms up above the surrounding buildings and bids fair to be an ornament to the place,” the West Mountain correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Nov. 2, 1894. “A. M. Wilkins is also in process of erecting upon his premises a blacksmith and carpenter shop, which is nearly ready for routing.”

In other 19th century Queensbury news collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• ”A fish chowder at Lake Sunnyside tomorrow afternoon at 1 o’clock for the benefit of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Sanford’s Ridge,” The Morning Star reported on Sept. 5, 1894. “The Queensbury band will furnish music. Dinner will be served for 50 cents (the equivalent of $17.83 in 2024 dollars).”
• “D. S. Haviland, Sanford’s Ridge, has harvested 186 bushels of Japanese buckwheat — machine measure — from four acres of land,” The Morning Star reported on Oct. 29, 1894.
• “John Brown and Omer Courtwright left yesterday for the mining camp at the Calf-pen, where they will stay this winter,” the Queensbury correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Dec. 29, 1894.

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