At the time of the Revolution, a school stood near this site on land donated by Edmond Ogden, the husband of Sybil Ludington. Education was then a local affair, affordable only to more well-to-do families, and the school was supported by fifteen patrons from their own resources. Beginning in 1795, the State Legislature experimented with ways to support such schools, first through textbooks and later through teacher training. By 1812, an actual school system existed and Patterson was divided into eight districts. The Legislature established an Education Fund, and interest from it was distributed by the state to the towns for land, buildings, repairs, books, and supplies, while parents who could afford schooling paid the remaining sixty percent of the costs. Teachers boarded with families for periods proportional to the number of children attending, and one quarter cord of wood per child was also assessed. The idea of free public education was first raised at the state level in 1843, but after six years of heated controversy it was established as public policy in 1849 through Governor Hamilton Fish's recommendations to the Legislature. In 1853 Patterson voted to become a Union Free School District, leased part of the unused land owned by the Presbyterian Church, and built this building as District School No. 1. It remained in use for almost half a century until it closed in the early 1900s, when classes moved to the new building on South Street, now the Administration Offices of the Carmel Central School District. In 1912 the unused building was bought and renovated by the Patterson Grange, which has used it as its meeting hall since then.