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Lakewood was first settled very early in the 19th-century.
Before taking on the name Lakewood upon the occasion of becoming a hamlet
(1889), the community was known as East Rockport. We appropriately start
our driving-tour at the only public school building remaining from that
era, the East Rockport Central School. As most buildings designed for institutional
purposes, it is a largely undistinguished brick building. It does have
tall windows, with sandstone heads and sills, and most importantly the
words "East Rockport Central School" and "1879" (its year of construction)
carved in sandstone blocks above the central second-floor windows and the
main entranceway, respectively. It is presently being used, with the adjacent
school building constructed in 1899, as the offices of the Lakewood Board
of Education. |
