On October 23, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. visitors to
the bucolic town of Roxbury will have the chance to visit a rarely opened
historic one -room schoolhouse. The schoolhouse is located on the Widmark Preserve at the corner of Tophet and
Schoolhouse Roads in Roxbury.
One of eight schoolhouses that once dotted the Roxbury
landscape, the Good Hill School House, or No. 4 as it was known on local tax
assessor's records, was built in the 1800s with a fieldstone foundation and
rustic wooden planks, likely by local farmers. It served students until
the turn of the 20th century when all Roxbury students began attending Booth
Free School, the town's current elementary school.
The Widmark Preserve was established in 1997 when the actor
Richard Widmark donated 4 acres and the one-room schoolhouse in memory of his
wife Jean. The Widmark Trust donated an additional 22.91 acres in 2004 to
expand the preserve and help establish a greenbelt that now encompasses 720
acres of connected, permanently protected land. The greenbelt includes the
22-acre Styron Preserve, the 32-acre Matthau Preserve, the 55-acre Arthur
Miller and Inge Morath Miller Preserve, the 467-acre Good Hill Preserve and the
100-acre Miller Preserve donated by Rebecca Miller in 2014.
About the
Roxbury Land Trust
The Roxbury Land Trust has preserved a
total of 3,630 acres of farmland, woodlands, wildlife habitats, watercourses,
wetlands and open space in Roxbury and neighboring communities since it was
established in 1970. Nationally accredited by the Land Trust Alliance, the
non-profit organization, which is governed by a volunteer board of directors,
is supported by membership dues and charitable contributions. The Land Trust
does not receive annual operating support from the town, the state or the
federal government. The Roxbury Land Trust maintains 32 preserves with 30 miles
of hiking trails and three active farms, as well as offers a range of
educational programs. For more information, visit www.roxburylandtrust.org
or call 860-350-4148.
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