PARIS — The Brick School, now known as the Fox School, has been entered in the National Register of Historic Places according to Kirk F. Mohney, director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.
The designation indicates that the property has been documented, evaluated and considered worthy of preservation and protection as part of the nation’s cultural heritage.
The Brick School is eligible for the National Register under Criteria A: Education at the local level as an example of a community school that was enlarged and adapted to meet the changing educational needs of the South Paris community over a period of many decades.
The rebuilding of the 1883 Italianate style Brick School in a restrained Classical Revival style in 1940 reflected changing national standards for school construction and a trend toward consolidation of small (typically one-room) neighborhood schoolhouses into larger buildings serving children from a wider area.
The rebuilt and expanded building exhibited common features of school buildings from the period, such as the banks of tall windows and portions of elevations without fenestration for blackboard walls on the interior. The school was updated with modern lighting and new ceilings between 1961 and 1967.
In 1967, the school was renamed for long-time principal, Mildred B. Fox, and is commonly known as the Fox School in 2017. The period of significance is from 1940, when the building was reconstructed in its current size and form, to 1967, which is 50 years before the present.
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