Long Island's Hidden Past: Modern Times Schoolhouse

Brentwood's first schoolhouse that was a part of Long Island's modern currency and government is now in trouble. The Modern Times Schoolhouse, currently located on the grounds of the Brentwood School

News 12 Staff

Sep 2, 2015, 6:34 PM

Updated 3,383 days ago

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Brentwood's first schoolhouse that was a part of Long Island's modern currency and government is now in trouble.
The Modern Times Schoolhouse, currently located on the grounds of the Brentwood School District survived Hurricane Sandy, but is in desperate need of restoration.
Back in the 1850s, the hamlet known as Brentwood was once called "Modern Times." The community set out to prove to the world free thinking and free love was the way to go.
The schoolhouse is listed in the National Register of Historical Places and hundreds of children from 1857 to 1907 were educated there. Although the social experiment of Modern Times did not last, the schoolhouse did.
Ellen Edelstein, of the Brentwood Historical Society, says it's amazing the schoolhouse has survived 150 years. Edelstein says she is doing everything she can to save the building.