In The Beginning
In 1903, the Town of Fayston constructed the iconic schoolhouse along the Mill Brook near the junction of Number Nine Hill Road and Town Highway #1, now Mill Brook Road (Vermont Route 17). The road got its name from Schoolhouse #9, which served the Fayston School District 9. Sixty years of bell ringing and the chatter of the children of Fayston ensued along the brook until the new schoolhouse on German Flats Road that currently serves the students of Fayston opened in 1963.
School Yard Tales
Gussie Graves: The Great Bell Tower Caper
Arthur & Hanne Williams
No. 9 School Teachers in the 1950s
Fayston 2013 Town Report Excerpt — dedication to Arthur Williams
Fayston 2011 Town Report Excerpt — dedication to Hanne Williams
The Fayston School Today
Fayston 2012 Town Report Excerpt — Happy 50th Birthday, Fayston School!
No. 9 School District Map
The Burley Years
In 1963, Robert Burley, in his mid-thirties, was hanging around the water cooler at the offices of architect Eero Saarinen in St Louis, MO. A senior designer on the Gateway Arch, Bob was discussing his future with colleagues upon completing the project. One colleague was heading to the Los Angeles office, another was heading to the London office, and a third was heading to New York. Bob said, “I’m purchasing a little two-room schoolhouse in Vermont to start my own architecture practice.”
So began the second half of the 120-year history of the Number Nine Schoolhouse when, in 1962, Patricia and Robert Burley purchased the gem along the brook from the Town of Fayston and started the Burley Partnership. Bob related this story while discussing the plan for the future of the building. He also said, “…this has been the best place in the world to work.” A very powerful statement from someone who has designed some of the finest homes and buildings in Vermont for the past 60 years.
Bob Burley, Photo: Vyto Starinskas, Vermont Sunday Magazine, Rutland Herald
The Burley Partnership was selected by the Board of State Buildings under Gov. Philip H. Hoff to create a master plan for the Capitol Complex in Montpelier. Burley created the preliminary master plan in 1966, followed by an updated plan in 1971, and a third update in 1981. Part of the plan was to purchase and restore the Pavilion Hotel. Some considered it a white elephant at the time, but its reconstruction was so successful that it drew national attention and praise from New York Times architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable.
Other Vermont Burley Partnership projects conducted from this historical schoolhouse include Trapp Family Lodge, Timberland Medical Building, Bailey-Howe Library at UVM, Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in White River Jct. and many more.
Now retired, Bob and his daughter Jill Burley have resolved to see the schoolhouse live on for a higher and greater purpose.