The Construction of the Center School - 1879
In 1879, there were five school districts in Atkinson. These districts’ one-room schoolhouses served grades 1-8, each with one teacher at the helm. At the time, the town’s School District No. 3 was in dire need of a new schoolhouse. This building, located at the time across from today’s Atkinson Police Department, was in poor condition and had closed the year before, with its students attending class in a leased room at Atkinson Academy.

The town contracted carpenter Benjamin H. Steele to construct a new District No. 3 school across the street from Atkinson Academy on land purchased from Charles A. and Samuel Knight and David Wheeler. As evidenced by the Building Committee’s report later that year when construction was completed, the total cost of the schoolhouse, labor and materials, was $936.14. (See image on this page.)

The Center School, also known as the “Little School” and sometimes the “Village School,” served the town’s District No. 3 from 1880 to 1949. As the decades progressed, Atkinson’s other four one-room schoolhouses would gradually close, their students sent to the Center School.

A Growing Student Population at the Center School – 1927 - 1949
By 1927, with the student population growing at the Center School, grades were being divided into two groups: Primary and Grammar, with two teachers employed. As enrollment grew, the town rented classroom space in Atkinson Academy, initially for the Primary grades. Later, the Primary grades returned to the Center School building and the Grammar grades went across the street to the Academy. During the 1938-1939 academic year, the fourth one-room schoolhouse, the Depot School, closed and the Center School became the sole elementary school in Atkinson.

During the next decade, it was evident that more instructional space was sorely needed. To meet this need, in 1949 the town remodeled the former Universalist Church to serve as Atkinson’s new elementary school. The school was named, “Rockwell School,” in honor of the Rockwell brothers, Leslie and Richard, who gave their lives for the country during World War II. September 1949 marked the end of Atkinson’s one-room schoolhouse era, when all Center School grades moved to the Rockwell School.

Usage of the Center School Building: 1960 – 2019
The Center School building remained empty until 1960 when the town’s police and selectmen merged together and constructed three rooms: a waiting room, selectmen’s office and a large room for the police department.

In 1982, while workers were installing an alarm system at the police department, they discovered the original tin ceiling with its decorative moldings intact, hidden behind a modern facade. In the attic they found old school desks and chairs and a world globe, dated 1809. One desk had the initials “DHN” carved near the inkwell. The initials could be those of Donald H. Nye, who later became Atkinson's postmaster. The globe was old and peeling, with names of countries that no longer exist: French Indochina, Persia, and Siam. The globe, desks, and chairs were donated to the Atkinson Historical Society. 

In 1989, the Atkinson Police Department moved to its current home, the former Rockwell School. Subsequently, Family Mediation & Juvenile Services set up in the Center School, occupying it until 2019. When Family Mediation closed its doors, the Center School building became vacant again for the second time, having been in use for 128 of the last 139 years. At that point, the Atkinson Historical Society became aware of the town’s interest in exploring different options for the property and took the first steps in preserving the building.

Present Day: AHS’s Restoration of the Center School
In August 2022, through the efforts of the Society, the Center School was placed on the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places. Since then, AHS has worked closely with a restoration specialist and the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance to restore the building to its original intent: a one-room schoolhouse. 

The Atkinson Historical Society is not requesting any funds from the town for restoration costs. Rather, we are diligently working on multiple fundraising avenues directed to the Center School Restoration Fund. To date, we have raised over $125,000 through private donations and grant awards. The Society’s grant writing efforts continue, as well as outreach to the community and fundraising events, such as our participation this year in Atkinson’s town-wide yard sale held on Saturday May 17, 2025. All proceeds went to the Center School Restoration Fund.