The Barnstable Village Schoolhouse was built in 1854 by Master Carpenter Samuel Sturgis Crocker. Mr Crocker was a prolific housewright who built the original Agricultural Hall in 1862 as well as many of Barnstable's finest residences. This schoolhouse, still standing at 3328 Main Street in Barnstable Village, replaced an earlier school situated further West and closer to the Village. Historical documents indicate that the first school was constructed in 1771, near "the old burial ground".After the building of the "new" school in 1854, the previous school transitioned to serve a multi-purpose community center until it was torn down in 1933. Records indicate that for the construction of the "new" school, Mr. Crocker was paid a sum of $400.

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The building we now know as the "Old Schoolhouse" seems to have come into being after the publication of the Massachusetts School Returns for 1841 - 1842, with sections from printed reports submitted by each town. An abstract of the report states that the new schoolhouses in Barnstable "should combine in them the comfort, convenience and usefulness of recent improvements. In their exterior architecture and finish they should be, at least neat and respectable for by the traveler, they are considered sure indicators o f the moral and intellectual character of the inhabitants of the district in which they are located." The town was thus charged with upholding a standard for the residents of the village that was modeled by the architecture of the school.

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Following the School Committee's advice, the 1854 Barnstable Village schoolhouse was constructed in the classic Greek Revival style so popular on Cape Cod between 1820 and 1860. The 2 1/2 story rectangular building facing Old King's Highway displayed a portico supported by four smooth columns, a fully pedimented gable containing a single window, pilastered corners and a clapboard exterior painted white. In the interior, the structure was divided into two large classrooms, each heated by a pot-bellied stove. Located beneath the portico on opposite sides of the building were separate entrances for the girls and the boys, consistent with schoolhouses of this era.

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By 1912, the growing population of Barnstable Village necessitated enlarging the schoolhouse to its present size. Enclosing the portico and adding new stairways on the East and West facades allowed the interior to be divided into four classrooms. Generation of Barnstable's schoolchildren came to know these classrooms intimately; paths worn grey in the stair treads and hardwood floors, oak desks with ink wells cut through to ink-splashed interiors, and in each classroom a slate chalk board with George Washington's portrait above.

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For over a century, this building served four generations of the families of Barnstable Village as the center of their primary education. School registers filled with the names of Barnstable"s first comers include Bacon, Bearse, Bassett, Cobb, Crocker, Gotham, Halley, Hathaway, Hinckley, Jones, Lewis, Lindell, Lothrop, Marston, Otis, Phinney and Sturgis. Some still live in the area. In 1957, a new consolidated Elementary School opened, rendering obsolete the Old Barnstable Schoolhouse and the building was sold to the Unitarian Church of Barnstable, on whose property it sat, for $1.

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The congregation of the church had planned to remodel the building for use as a parish hall and for religious education, but decided instead to construct an addition to the church. Over the years, the schoolhouse was used by the Cape Cod Conservatory of Music and Arts and later the Cape Cod Council of Churches which operated a popular thrift shop. In October 1982, arsonists set fire to the Old Schoolhouse, seriously damaging the building. With the future of the building in jeopardy, the church reached an agreement and signed a lease with a new non-profit group formed of community members and called "Friends of the Schoolhouse" (FOSH). They oversaw the repair of the building and soon after began renting the classrooms and cafeteria as space for a variety of social service and cultural groups ; current resident members it used as classrooms for the arts, office space for the Cape Cod Council of Churches and a dearly loved thrift shop in the basement (which some still come looking for!) In 2004, Friends of the Schoolhouse, Inc. turned the building into a number of studios for professioinal artists. So it continues to be used today.