190 Egremont Plain Road

Egremont voted to abolish its school districts in 1879, bought lots for new schools the following August and took the old district schoolhouses down. The school it raised in North Egremont in 1880 is this one: a single story gable front block of clapboard, four bays across, with a side entry and a Roman arched window set in the gable, as the National Register survey described it in 1988. It served the village for over a century; class was dismissed for the last time in June 1981. The Massachusetts Historical Commission carries it as EGR.92, the North Egremont Schoolhouse, a contributing building in the North Egremont Historic District, listed in 1989.

The renovation took the building to the studs. The original beams stay exposed under the vaulted ceiling of the great room, which now has a free standing propane stove, and a stair climbs to a loft the listing shows as an office and guest space. The kitchen has custom cabinetry under honed marble counters, the bath custom tile over radiant heated floors. Behind the walls is the part you cannot photograph: new insulation, custom engineered windows, a heat pump, a solar array and 200 amp service, with fiber internet available. One bedroom, one bath, about 1,377 square feet by the owner's measure, on a half acre.

Egremont Plain Road is Route 71, the turnpike that has run from South Egremont toward Kinderhook since 1803. North Egremont grew up where it crosses Prospect Lake Road, the old turnpike in from Hillsdale, and the general store begun in the village in 1814 is still trading as the Old Egremont Country Store. The district's eastern edge follows the Green River, and the meadow behind the house is what the rear facade looks out over.