Rowena Memorial School
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Rowena Memorial School
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School building in 2007
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| Location | Palenville, NY |
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| Nearest city | Saugerties |
| Coordinates | 42°10′31″N 74°01′11″W / 42.17528°N 74.01972°WCoordinates: 42°10′31″N 74°01′11″W / 42.17528°N 74.01972°W |
| Area | 1.6 acre (6,400 m²) |
| Built | 1899-1901 |
| Architect | George Holdridge, John Davidson |
| Architectural style | Romanesque |
| NRHP Reference # | 02000879 |
| Added to NRHP | 2002 |
The former Rowena Memorial School is located on NY 23A, at the junction with NY 32A, in Palenville, New York, United States. It is a stone Romanesque style building that educated local students for 70 years. It had fallen into disrepair until it was rebuilt in the 1990s and converted to an arts center.
The school stands three stories high, with a panoramic view of the Catskill Escarpment to the northwest. Its entrance bay is topped with a Dutch gable with its original clock. A small, single-story three-by-two-bay wing projects from the north elevation.
Despite neglect and vandalism much of the interior remains intact. A bronze dedication plaque remains in the front hall, and in the classrooms and offices there is still much original woodwork. On the second story, an early partitioning system to allow the merging or division of classrooms as necessary, complete with blackboards on the paneling, is still in place. The only major change is the recital hall, where a collapsed ceiling was never replaced and instead the new room enjoys a higher, cathedral-style ceiling.
It was built by Lysander Lawrence, a wealthy New York City merchant. He, among many others, passed through Palenville during his summers in the late 19th century on his way to the Catskill Mountain House. During those trips, he became acquainted with one of the local school principals. After the death of his wife Rowena in the 1890s, Lawrence decided to pay tribute to her by doing something for the community they had both come to love. He decided to pay for a new school building that would combine the populations currently attending Palenville's two small schoolhouses.
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