Primary School

Designed and built in 1880, by Harvey Ellis, the same architect that worked on the mansion “Sunnycroft” just up the street, it was first used as the Union Free Grade School until 1915. The L-shaped frame structure of residential scale and character, of which small houses were Ellis's mainstay, contained a few Queen Anne decorative details. One recognizable Ellisonian touch would be a new window arrangement of contiguous horizontal alignment of the first and second story windows on a gable wall. It was stated of Ellis’ work that it had “harmonious proportions and orderly fenestration elevate the design above the norm for such modest school buildings.” Once the school closed, it was then converted to a theater for silent films, called The Grand Theater. After a subsequent addition and remodeling, it became an apartment building. It was demolished about 1977 to clear the site for a supermarket that was never built.