"School privileges were first set up at Deep Cove in 1842 under the direction of the Church of England as shown by a deed from Charles D. Wilcox to St. Paul's Church Corporation. The lot about one quarter acre in size was located just across the road near Miss Sabra Brigg's driveway. A log building was erected and children of the pioneer families went to this school. After the New Brunswick free school act was set up in 1872, Deep Cove and Seal Cove areas were combined and served by a new school building at the "Brown Hill" near the Seal Cove Cemetery on the road leading to Deep Cove. The building is now owned by Ottawa Benson.
School District #9 was set up in 1887 and a plot of land located a few rods west of Deep Cove Beach containing one half acre was bought from William and Jane Wilcox. George E. Daggett (1866-1947) contracted to build the school as his first venture in a long building career.
When former residents moved away from the school district it followed that most students came from the eastern side of the cove, some having to walk a mile or more to and from school. A move to bring the school nearer to the homes was under way in 1921 and the building was taken apart in sections for removal across the sea wall. No school was held that year. The next year (1922) saw the moving and erection of the building on a new piece of land close to the place where the school bus turns just below the Forest Wilcox home. By 1933 a further endeavor to locate the school in a more central place brought it to the present location. This was a big event at the time - the government tractor was used to haul it to the new place with Arthur Carson and Reginald Carson in charge of the new way to move heavy buildings.
With bus service and High School classes being established in Castalia it became apparent that a better opportunity could be given students who could attend graded classes at Seal Cove and by 1947 the Deep Cove school ended a long and successful career. A school in the district was a status symbol and cessation of such brought nostalgic memories and some fears of declining prestige in the area. But such is progress and the product of the village school is known through the progressive spirit of the McDonald, Matthews, Herrington, Bancroft, McLaughlin, Wilcox, Russell, Brown and other families who learned the three Rs under rural dominion.
In a grand gesture by the recent gift of Mrs. Marion Laffoley the school building will be preserved for all to see on another foundation in the Gerrish House Society lot.
Elmer N. Wilcox
May 6, 1963
Grand Manan, N. B."

In 1963, the building was moved to the Grand Manan Museum property. In 1972, work began to restore and preserve the school. Another restoration project in 2015-17 saw the building refreshed for future generations to enjoy. It is open to the public during the summer months.

History of Education on Grand Manan Island - The first schools on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, were started shortly after the arrival of the first English-speaking settlers in the eighteenth century, with schools built in each settlement as soon as the settlers were able. The earliest recorded teachers grant was for Magnus Green to teach in the North Head - Castalia area of Grand Manan in 1845. By 1851, five teachers were receiving grants and there were four 'school houses' here. By 1861, there were six schools. Most village school instruction reached a level close to the present Junior high. Until 1943, education was an activity of each village, with some students going to other village schools for later grades when those grades were not offered in their own villages.
New Brunswick’s, and in turn Grand Manan’s, education system became increasingly centralized as the century progressed. In the first half of the 20th century, education was administered and funded by county-level governments. By the late-1940s, mainland communities were establishing regional school districts to give rural students the opportunity to have a full high school education. Parents on Grand Manan asked for similar opportunities, and a high school was established on temporary quarters in the 1943-1944 school year. Grand Manan’s new consolidated high school was opened in Grand Harbour in 1949.
The next wave of changes came in the late-1960s. First, in 1967, a new high school opened behind Grand Harbour’s old high school, and the latter was turned into a junior high. Next, in 1968, as part of the provincial government’s Equal Opportunity program, the Department of Education in Fredericton assumed administrative and financial responsibility for education throughout the province, and Grand Manan, in turn, was made School District 22. 1978 was the last year the community schools on Grand Manan were operating. In 1979, students were transported by bus to the central Grand Harbour location. The junior high school became the only elementary school for students on Grand Manan. The elementary school on outlying White Head Island, however, remains operational in 2019.
The third and latest wave of changes began in the mid-1990s. In 1996, the Department of Education reduced the number of school districts, and, in 1997, it instituted province-wide kindergarten programs. As a result, the district office on Grand Manan was closed in 1996 (Grand Manan became part of District 10, centered in St. Stephen), and the high school was renovated and expanded in 1999 in order to accommodate students from kindergarten to grade twelve as well as a new library and gymnasium. The former junior high—the structure built in 1949—was demolished the same year that the newly expanded school re-opened.
Source: Gleneta Hettrick and Ava Griffin Sturgeon