When the 1860 wooden clapboard schoolhouse in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, burned in 1888, it was replaced with a larger brick building, which sits on the corner of Main and Conway Streets. Concern about fire led many towns in New England to use more fire resistant brick for construction of their schoolhouses. Since 1979, this building has housed the senior center. Previous uses include the Tom Ashley Post No. 229 of the American Legion, Clapp-Hale V.F.W. Post No. 3295, Precinct A election site, town offices, a night school for immigrants to learn English, and a meeting place for Boy Scouts. A newer elementary school called Mount Sugarloaf school was built in 1913, on Conway Street to accommodate up to 350 students. It had 8 classrooms, a big playground, and better ventilation. This school is now gone, having been torn down in the 1990s to build a new police station. Its addition is used for the town hall offices.