North Danville School
North Danville 4th of July
North Danville 4th of July parade. Pho­to by George Cahoon

The North Danville School is the sec­ond school of vil­lage of North Danville. The first, a large two-sto­ry struc­ture, edu­cat­ing ele­men­tary through high school stu­dents, was replaced by the present struc­ture in 1930. Lat­er, a fire in the upper por­tion of the old school caused seri­ous dam­age, but the build­ing was saved by local vol­un­teer fire­fight­ers. What remained of the old school was lat­er demolished.

The present build­ing was used as a gram­mar school through 1989 before the last remain­ing grades were moved to Danville School in Danville Green. In 1990, the Town agreed to keep the school as a com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter for the vil­lage. One of the most loved events in our town is cen­tered at the school when North Danville hosts the 4th of July cel­e­bra­tion. The event fills the com­mu­ni­ty with crowds that enjoy a parade, games, and lots of good food and conversation.

The building’s four main rooms are used by three orga­ni­za­tions: the North Danville Brain­erd Library (two rooms), the Danville His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety, and the North Danville Com­mu­ni­ty Club. The North Danville School Asso­ci­a­tion encour­ages the use of the facil­i­ty by non-prof­it, local orga­ni­za­tions and com­mu­ni­ty groups with­in the Town of Danville. Non-prof­it Danville com­mu­ni­ty groups may use the build­ing free of charge, sub­ject to sched­ul­ing. Oth­er groups and indi­vid­u­als may use the facil­i­ty if the use is con­sis­tent with the mis­sion of the Asso­ci­a­tion, sub­ject to scheduling.

The new North Danville School, present­ly used as a com­mu­ni­ty center.
N. Danville side pho­to of the old school. Demol­ished in 1930. You also see the church horse sheds, which last­ed into the mid 1900s. Pic­ture from the Stan­ton-Coutu col­lec­tion. For fur­ther infor­ma­tion on North Danville his­to­ry, see Ger­ard LaMoth­e’s book One Vil­lage, Two Cen­turies, Sev­er­al Fam­i­lies. Books are avail­able from the author and can be seen at the Choate-Sias house on Hill Street in Danville.