By Marilyn Fish
The school year in Becket has always begun in September and ended in June, right? Actually, wrong. It was only in 1852 that Massachusetts began to regulate school terms and make attendance compulsory. A new law intended to give youngsters a basic education and keep them off the streets provided that children between the ages of 8 and 14 must attend school for 12 weeks per year, six of which had to be consecutive. Despite this, truancy and crimes perpetrated by truants remained a problem. By the mid- 1870s county commissioners recognized that jailing juveniles was not the answer and moved to establish truant schools “for the confinement, discipline, and instruction of minors.”
Soon citizens of Berkshire County who had been sending their truants to a Hampden County institution pressed for a location closer to home. Almost 10 years passed before commissioners chose the East Becket property of George Keeler as the location. Keeler had recently built a house for summer boarders. It was about 45’ x 65’, two stories high, with a garret, cellar, dining room and about 15 bedrooms. Outbuildings dotted the surrounding 45-acre farm, which was located high on a hill, near a lake, two miles from Becket Center. The Keeler house had failed as a summer retreat and was falling into disrepair when the county rented it for $65 per year.
Deputy Sheriff Robert M. Savery and Mrs. Sarah J. W. Savery accepted the jobs of superintendent and matron for a salary of $600 (later $900) per year plus board. The Saverys restored the property, making it ready for the boys (girls were not specifically excluded but none attended) from throughout the county who were considered “ripe” for reformation. They furnished a schoolroom with desks and blackboards and engaged a teacher. A few barred windows and a fenced yard were meant to keep the more troublesome students confined. The boys would be expected to work on the property and care for their own rooms.
The school opened on September 1, 1887. Within two years a controversy as to its value erupted in the Berkshire Eagle and the Pittsfield Sun. In January 1889, The Eagle’s editor claimed that “The county truant school in Becket is the most expensive institution for the benefits derived from it that there is in the county.” The overall expense in 1888 had been $2,500.48 (about $45,000 in 2024 dollars) which was spent in the care of only two boys. The Pittsfield Sun objected, saying that “The Eagle willfully and maliciously misrepresents the financial facts about the truant school.”
The newspapers soon published detailed lists of school expenditures proving the integrity of its managers. Robert and Sarah Savery were found blameless in the expenditures involved in maintaining the property and its unwilling boarders. The school remained open and the county commissioners, still convinced of its viability, purchased the Keeler property for $1,500. However, the controversy simmered beneath the surface and by the end of 1896 county commissioners obtained permission to abolish the school for want of inmates. It had proven more difficult than expected to “convict” a boy of truancy. Teachers and truant officers generally declined to make formal court-mandated complaints and believed that parents, if properly informed of their children’s absences, could best deal with them at home. Furthermore, towns were reluctant to pay $2.00 per week per detainee to the county. In July, 1899, Mr. M. A. Fenton of Lynn, Massachusetts, purchased the truant school and its surrounding acreage and by the end of the year had added verandas and remodeled the interior, restoring it to its original purpose as a summer boarding house. Known as York Villa, it attracted a loyal following until it succumbed to fire in 1910.
Sources: Contemporary accounts in The Berkshire Eagle and The Pittsfield Sun.
