In March 2025 at Town Meeting, citizens unanimously voted to appropriate $21,000 from the Wilson II Fund to restore and repair the brick work on Sharon’s one-room schoolhouse. Our Brick Schoolhouse, built in 1832 and on both the national and state historic registers, is an important landmark in our town that is worth preserving. However, time has taken its toll on the schoolhouse, and many of the bricks are cracked, have holes allowing moisture and insects to get inside, and have deteriorating mortar that compromise the structure. Past patches have held up until now.
After seeking bids, the town engaged David Berquist to accomplish the work. David is a master mason with decades of experience in historical towns including Concord, Cambridge, Lexington, Nantucket MA where he is known for his expertise in masonry restoration. Lucky for us, he lives just over the Sharon line in Temple and he’s especially enthusiastic about our little brick schoolhouse. Take a look at his website to get a sense of the quality and scope of his work: https://oldmasonryrestoration.com
David has sourced antique bricks for our project and has had the mortar of the schoolhouse chemically analyzed so he’ll be using what matches the original.
He began work in June. As of late in the month, scaffolding was installed on two walls of the schoolhouse and the decayed mortar is being cut out.
If you see David Berquist and his crew working at the Brick Schoolhouse over the summer, please stop by and say hello. In the meantime, scroll down for some photos showing progress on the project:
July 15, 2025 Degraded mortar is being removed
