Madrid Village Schoolhouse Museum Open House

Time: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Location: 1 Reeds Mill Road, Madrid Twp

Built in 1872 and used as a schoolhouse until 1959, the later years for K-4 only. It is one of the only schoolhouses left in the country with a two story privy. From 1959 to 2000 it was used for a town office, town meetings and a polling place. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. It was deeded to Madrid Historical Society by the Town of Madrid in 2000 when the town de-organized.
It was renovated with a new cement foundation, installation of indoor plumbing, installation of Monitor heaters in the meeting room and museum and finishing of the lower level as a meeting and community room. In order to maintain the historic integrity of the building, with the exception of an interior stairway from the upper level school room to the community room, repairs and painting of the interior tin covered walls and ceiling and refinishing the wood floor, the school room remains unchanged. The two-story privy remains, but is no longer functional.
The upper level schoolroom is now used as the museum. One half of the room is set up as a school room with the original blackboards, wood stove (no longer functional), map case and many early schoolbooks. The other half has display boards for photo posters of some of Madrid’s history, many photo albums, and other items owned by early residents that have been donated or are on loan to MHS.
We are also most fortunate to have copies of many of the Town of Madrid’s early record books, including all of the hand written records of town meetings from 1821 through 2000; several early ledgers of town valuations and assessments; and some very early records from some of the school districts. When the Town of Madrid de-organized all of their record books went to Augusta for preservation and storage. The last town clerk in Madrid had all important record books, including birth, death and marriage records from 1892 to 2000, copied and bound. Early birth and death records from 1821 to 1892 when the State required that birth be recorded with the State have been taken from town record books where they were in no particular order and organized into an alphabetized chart by family. We also have various anecdotal histories and memories copied and in a notebook, a chronological history information on the mills of Madrid and copies of census records from 1820 through 1930.