The Norton’s Corner School is our historic one-room schoolhouse, located at 2373 Elliotsville Road in Willimantic, Maine. Built about 1882, it was one of our small town’s first public buildings, a role it continues to serve as it now houses the public library. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 14, 2015.

The school was built sometime between 1881, when a town meeting authorized the division of the town into school districts, and 1884, when it voted to acquire the land on which the constructed building stood. It was probably the second school built in the town, as mention is made in the 1881 meeting minutes of another school. That school, the Hart’s Corner School, is in poor condition and has been substantially altered. Alterations to Norton’s Corner School include a woodshed and privie, which were added in 1916 and 1926, and the building was electrified by 1951. The school was used for educational purposes until 1965, when it was the last of the town’s schools to close (the town’s students are now sent to schools consolidated with other area communities). In 1976, a local civic group outfitted the building with library shelving, and opened it in the summertime as a public library.