Mather School in Dorchester

The first schoolhouse in Dorchester was situated on what has been known as "Settlers' Street," near the corner of the present Pleasant and Cottage Streets and consisted of a single room. It served until 1694 when a contract was made with John Trescot to build a house twenty feet long and nineteen feet wide, with a ground floor and a chamber above, a flight of stairs, and a chimney. The contract required the building to be boarded and clapboarded; to be filled up between the studs; to be fully covered with boards and shingles. The site of this building is supposed to be the hill near the meeting-house, on what is now known as Winter Street.  The successor of this first school is the Mather School atop  Meetinghouse Hill, the second building of that name.
[Illustration and text courtesy of the Dorchester Illustration of the Day email list]