Brick Academy Foundation
It's hard to believe that such an impressive building once stood where these few foundation stones remain. Much of the history of the Brick Academy, as it was called, has been lost. Established by Rowland T. Robinson and others in 1839, the school welcomed African-American and white children, both from the area and from New York. Among the black students were the Turpins, children of a freed slave and the wards of a New York Quaker friend who arranged for them to be educated here. An algebra book signed by Henry Turpin remains in the collection. We know the school was disbanded in 1846, although we do not know why. It was used for agricultural storage, especially apples, for many years, and then sold to be dismantled for the brick in the early 1940s.