On Saturday, Sept. 5, at 10 a.m., the bay doors of the East Boothbay Fire Station were open for a different kind of gathering. Over 45 community members—spanning multiple generations—came together to celebrate the rich history of the building that, for over a century, served as the East Boothbay School. Organized as a collaborative effort with speakers from the Boothbay Historical Society, the Boothbay Fire Department, and the Boothbay Lions Club, the morning was filled with shared memories, local heritage, and a deep appreciation for a cornerstone of the village.

Larry Brown, the school resource officer from the Boothbay Harbor Police Department, organized the event, spent several weeks identifying speakers, gathering historical artifacts of the school, including an 8x5 foot map of the United States that was made in 1912, the school bell, as well as numerous pictures of the school over the decades which were prominently displayed for attendees to review.

The event kicked off with Tom Nickerson, a retired Boothbay Fire Chief, former Town Selectman and former Lions Club member, recounting memories of the school and how it became the East Boothbay Fire Department and the many changes that the structure went through over the past 100 years.

Historical Society President Kay Wilder read Barbra Rumsey’s article “Out of our Past” which detailed teaching legend Hope Updergraff tenure over 50 years teaching at the school, and the tremendous impact she had on the hundreds of children who passed through the school over the decades.

For the alumni in attendance, stepping into the space brought a flood of nostalgia. Former students traded stories about the daily realities of attending the bustling, two-story wooden schoolhouse, recounting the familiar climb up the stairs to reach the second-floor classrooms. Laughter echoed as alumni recalled Hope Updegraff, whose "all-seeing, all-hearing" abilities resulted in a brand of instant, old-fashioned discipline that kept classrooms in perfect order from the 1920s well into the 1970s. Others shared fond memories of Judy (Gravely) Burgess, who joined the school in 1966 and left a lasting mark through her gentle nature and deep passion for teaching early elementary reading.

To understand the full scope of the building's legacy, before 1846, local schoolchildren simply gathered in a room inside the home of prominent shipbuilder Caleb Hodgdon. It wasn't until Benjamin Reed donated a parcel of land at the northwest corner of School Street that the dedicated schoolhouse was finally built.

During the 19th century, the school operated under a fiercely independent district system, designed so that no student had to walk more than two miles to attend class. As the village evolved, so did the building. In the 1910s, under teachers like F.M. Malcolm, it briefly offered high school-level courses, saving local students the arduous commute to neighboring towns. By the mid-20th century, the East Boothbay building became a central hub for the eastern side of the peninsula, absorbing students from the Linekin school after its closure in 1936, and the Back Narrows school in 1940.

The era of the neighborhood schoolhouse ultimately drew to a close in the fall of 1977, when the town completed a massive consolidation effort and opened the doors to the new centralized Boothbay Region Elementary School.

Yet, unlike many historic schoolhouses that were lost to demolition, the building at 6 School Street was given a second life. Supported by civic organizations like the Boothbay Region Lions Club, the town repurposed the beloved landmark to serve as the East Boothbay Fire Station. Today, the former classrooms house modern firefighting apparatus—complete with a recently implemented diesel exhaust extraction system to keep the station safe and operational—allowing the building to continue protecting and serving the community in a new capacity.

Capping off the event was a special historical surprise led by Tom Nickerson, Dickie Spofford, Dave McFarland and Larry Brown. With a backdrop of a fire coat draped over a chair, Dickie Spofford lifted the coat off to unveil a piece of the original school chalkboard framed as a picture.

The interesting back story of the chalkboard presentation is that Jack Barry, a longtime East Boothbay Fire Chief, and who was respected by all in the fire department and community for his dedication and commitment to the community and department, with the help of his father-in-law, Claude Rice, used materials from the school to build the fire station back in the early 80’s. Jack had subsequently given the chalkboard to Tom Nickerson. At the BRHS class of 1971 reunion this past July, which Tom and Larry co-chaired, Tom presented the chalk board to Larry in appreciation for all that he has done and the impact he has had for the students since he became the student resource officer in 2009. Larry felt that this chalkboard artifact, with the decades of historical significance and used by teachers in front of hundreds of students should be widely shared with the community, thus the idea for the event.

At the end of the event, Larry and his wife Marti Booth distributed prints they had made up of the school from 1970, which were given as mementos to those in attendance.

While the old slate blackboards have been traded for fire trucks, Saturday’s gathering proved one thing with absolute certainty: the historic wooden building remains exactly what it was when its doors first opened in 1846—the vital, beating heart of the East Boothbay community.