On the left is the Gardiner Schoolhouse, a one-room structure that was erected in 1880, one of approximately fifteen one-room school houses in the town at the time. The building was expanded in 1895 with a second room and a prominent bell tower. It was located a short walk from the rail depot and the developing residential Gardiner hamlet.
The schoolhouse was one of the few buildings to survive Gardiner’s 1825 fire that ravaged other buildings farther west in the hamlet. From the 1920s onward, one-room school houses slowly closed one after the other as school districts centralized instruction. The Gardiner School was a holdout, not closing until 1981.
Subsequently, after much community discussion and votes, this historic building became Gardiner Town Hall and has undergone significant renovation even as its outward appearance has not changed significantly.
US Routes 44/55 run west through the hamlet of Gardiner and then over the Shawangunk Mountains.
