The building is neatly painted in a light shade of gray, with darker trimmings. The ground iloor proper is occupied by a commodious and well-arranged school-room, fitted up with modern school furniture, and adjoining are the vestibule and cloak-rooms, the former opening upon a small porch. The loft above is unfurnished, but the basement is fitted up for the uses of the town with benches and a small dais at the west end of the room, the walls being finished in plaster.
In this connection it is interesting to note that the percentage of illiteracy in the town has of late years been very low, as is evidenced by the following figures, taken from the State census reports : In 1855 it was 1.10 per cent. ; in 1865, 1.07 per cent. ; and in 1875, 1.51 per cent.
Shortly after the erection of the Church of St. James the Less the organization of a parish school was undertaken, and the first notice of this is found in the report of the convention of New York for 1853, which says, " A small building for the purposes of a Parochial School is now being built." This stood in a pleasant situation a few hundred yards to the northwest of the church, and on a private road leading through the Popham property to Scarsdale Station. The next year the convention records contain no report of the parish school, but in 1855 we find the following:
Daily Parish Schools, One, part free -- Males, 6 ; Females, 11." That year eighty dollars was contributed by the church toward the parish school building. The next year the number of scholars had risen to twenty -- males, fourteen ; females, six -- and one hundred dollars was contributed by the parish towards the support of the school.