Description of Historic Place

Former Gayton School is a one-and-a-half storey wooden building located on Gayton Road, on the edge of the Memramcook River, in the village of Memramcook.

Heritage Value

Former Gayton School is designated a Local Historic Place for being representative of the old one-room schoolhouses found in Memramcook after the enactment of the Common Schools Act of 1871.

When it was built in 1884, the school was in School District No. 25, sometimes known as “Upper Memramcook,” which took in the former village of Gayton. It is one of the last schools of this type still standing in the region, and its style is typical of one-room schoolhouses. It has a steeply pitched gable roof and a façade with two entrances. Abandoned in the 1960s after the region’s school districts were consolidated, the former school is now used as a shed by a private owner. Although some of its openings have been boarded up, the original placement of the door and window openings has remained intact.

Source: Village of Memramcook – Site File “L'ancienne école de Gayton”

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe Former Gayton School include:
- its location very near the Memramcook River and the covered bridge spanning it;
- two entrance doors on the façade;
- steep-pitched gable roof;
- windows on the façade at ground level and on the upper floor;
- symmetrical arrangement of the rectangular windows on the two sides;
- items preserved inside the building, including the blackboards still attached to the wall, the old stove, and the hand-held school bell.