District School Number Five
Also known as: Little Red Schoolhouse
Why it's listed
Built in 1839 on Dry Run Road in the Town of Campbell, this one-room schoolhouse has a hand-hewn timber frame, a fieldstone foundation, horizontal pine clapboard siding and a steeply pitched gable roof, painted red with white trim. Inside are plaster walls, oak floors and period desks facing the teacher's desk. It served as a district school until 1956 and also hosted town meetings, Bible school and religious services. Its design reflects rural school practice of the 1840s to 1860s, with a single room and evenly spaced windows and no stylistic ornament. Later changes, such as moved windows and a second door added for safety codes, are modest. The school also matters because Thomas J. Watson Sr., later head of IBM, attended it in the late 1870s. The property now belongs to a conference and retreat center that grew from land Watson gave to the Methodist Church in 1955, and the school is kept as a museum.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues it is an intact, representative example of mid-19th-century rural school architecture in Steuben County, with a one-room plan and large evenly spaced windows. It is also tied to IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson Sr., who attended the school as a child. It served as a school from 1839 to 1956.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 01000242, listed March 21, 2001. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 9436 Dry Run Rd., Campbell |
|---|---|
| County | Steuben County |
| Listed | March 21, 2001 |
| Reference number | 01000242 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | 1839-1950 |
| Architectural style | Mid-19th Century; no style |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture, Commerce |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Currently maintained as a museum; the building is unheated and its original slate blackboards were removed after the school closed. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 42.22344, -77.13233 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
For a publicly owned building or structure, listing mainly matters when federal funds, permits or licences are involved: projects then go through Section 106 review so effects on the property are considered. Listing also strengthens applications for preservation grants and, for leased income-producing uses, can enable the federal rehabilitation tax credit.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 01000242.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q5283378
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.