NEWSTEAD, N.Y. (WBEN).....To Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz allocating $86,000 in county funds goes beyond helping with much-needed renovations to the historic Limerick Hall in Newstead.
"We need to keep these type of historical landmarks going," Poloncarz said.
Limerick Hall is one of the few remaining one classroom school houses that remain in the county. The current building, located on Cummings and Clarence Center Roads in Newstead, was constructed in 1869 but its roots as a one-room schoolhouse date back to 1838.
The school ran until 1957.
"We have very few one-room schoolhouse buildings left in the county," Poloncarz said.
Architectural buffs will travel to check out these buildings from a very distant bygone past.
"We hope to play off its heritage and history," said Wynne klingel, a director with Friends of Limerick Inc., the six-year-old organization that runs the landmark.
The $86,000 - that came from the county's Cultural Capital Grant program - covered such items as repairs to the building's chimney, installing a new sidewalk and making the bathroom ADA-complaint.
More than $50,000 in more work is needed and Klingel said her group is working to secure those funds.
Limerick Hall is believed to have been constructed in 1869 to replace a smaller, log schoolhouse that itself was built in 1838.
Officially, for many years, Limerick Hall was called School No. 12, but its named was changed to honor the Irish immigrants who moved to the Newstead area to work at the Cummings Cement Mill.
From 1957 until 2008, the building was owned by the Town of Newstead but let it go in 2008 and, despite its history, sat vacant until 2020 when Friends of Limerick Inc. took possession and began restoring it as an architectural and historical destination, complete with the throwback rows of school desks.
Erie County aids in renovations to Newstead landmark
Erie County aids in renovations to Newstead landmark
