Suffolk County Historical Society: Photo of the Week / May 9, 2022 -- West Manor School, Manorville

Photo of the Week

— May 9, 2022 —

FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES

“How shall we know it is us without our past?”
– John Steinbeck

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West Manor School, Manorville, c. 1813

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In 1813, four schools were organized in Manorville, according to the Hamlet Study of Manorville: East Manor, West Manor, South Manor, and North Manor schools. Three were known as common schools, while South Manor became a union-free school. The West Manor school, pictured here on a postcard from circa 1902, was a two-room building.

Manorville, orginally known as Punk’s Hole, was settled by descendants of the Southold settlers. The hamlet was given its current name in 1844 after the LIRR built a station at Manorville and named it “St. George’s Manor.” It is claimed that the station agent, who was a patriot during the Revolutionary War, disliked the station name so much because of its association with the British that he painted over the railroad station sign leaving only “Manor”–from which the name “Manorville” was ultimately formed.

Suggested Reading: Hamlet Study of Manorville, 1993.

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