Byram School
Between Sherman Ave. and Western Junior Hwy., Greenwich, CTThe Byram School is architecturally significant as a well-preserved superior example of institutional Colonial Revival-style architecture. Enhanced by the quality of its architectural detailing and its exceptional park-like setting. it is one of the best of the several early twentieth-century schools of this style in Greenwich.
The Byram School, a neighborhood elementary school, was built in 1925-26 to serve the then primarily Polish-American community of Byram. It was a replacement for an earlier wooden structure, also a neighborhood school, which was located on Boston Post Road. The community was established because of the nearby granite quarries which flourished in the late nineteenth century, attracting Polish immigrants to the area.
Ten architects entered an architectural competition to design the Byram School. A local architect, Errol Coffin, of the firm Coffin and Coffin, was selected. He was known for his designs for school buildings throughout the Northeast. Several of his schools, built between 1925 and 1934, were featured in architectural journals of the period.
Excavation began in October 1924 and the original building was completed by September 1926. It contained 15 rooms serving kindergarten through the eighth grade. An auditorium and gymnasium wing was added in 1936, but the architect for the addition is not known. In September 1926, the old Byram School on Post Road was sold at auction,
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.