The children of Breslau originally attended school with children of Huntington farmers in a small one-room schoolhouse on Montauk Highway (Breslau/Lindenhurst was originally part of Huntington township, before the founding of Babylon). When that school became overcrowded, it was decided to organize a school closer to the Village center to be privately financed. The original Wellwood Station railroad depot built by the South Side Railroad and given to the Village was moved from its location on the southeast corner of Wellwood and Hoffman Avenues and moved to a lot donated by Thomas and Abby Welwood on what is now School Street, where it was converted into a schoolhouse. The new school opened on December 12, 1870 with 68 students and a Mr. Strassberger in charge. A year later, the school was turned over to the school district to become the only schoolhouse in Dictrict #4. It is pictured below in 1874, by which time there were over 200 students with classes taught in German.
Under Construction
Shortly after the new school opened, the Evangelical St. Johannes Church of Breslau was built on John Street, opening in 1872. Here it is pictured under construction with the first Breslau school in the foreground.
Outgrowing the Schoolhouse
By 1876, the student population had increased and outgrown the old depot schoolhouse. It later served as a firehouse and then a private home.
An Expanding Campus
Over time, the old school house was altered and expanded, as shown below in a postcard view from the mid-20th century, taken from the roof of the brick School Street School looking north toward West John Street.
The School Becomes a Private Home
For many years, the building was the private home of Frederick Scheide, a past Supervisor of the Town of Babylon and owner of a nearby soda bottling plant. In the postcard view below, looking south down School Street, the original school building is the part in the foreground of the photo.
The Building Today
Shown in a more recent photo, the old depot school building still stands today.