Cobb School

The former Cobb School building stands in a rural area of central northern Hardwick, on a wooded lot at the west side of the junction of Cobb School and Bridgman Hill Roads. It is a single-story wood-frame structure, with a front-facing gabled roof, clapboarded exterior, and a foundation of large granite slabs. A square open belfry rises from the center of the roof ridge, capped by a pyramidal roof. The main facade is three bays wide, with outer bays housing small fixed-pane square windows, and the centered entrance flanked by sidelight windows and topped by a hood with large plain angled brackets. The building corners have simple pilasters, which rise to an entablature on the sides. The north side entablature is interrupted by a bank of windows, an early 1900s alteration. The building interior has been converted to residential use.^[2]

The Cobb School was built to serve Hardwick's District Four in the 1840s. It was built on land donated by John Cobb, to whom school-designated land had been leased by the town as a means of subsidizing the costs of education. The school underwent an interior update in the late 19th century, and in the early 20th century two banks of windows were added, a response to state standards on lighting conditions in schools. The building was electrified in 1915, but was never fitted with plumbing while it served as a school. It closed, due to declining enrollment and a comparatively high cost of operation in 1946. It was then converted into a residence.^[2]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Caledonia County, Vermont