135 Year Anniversary

The New York State School for the Deaf in Rome is celebrating its 135th anniversary this week. A deaf teacher who graduated from the New York Institution for the Deaf named Alphonso Johnson proposed starting the school. Thomas Gallaudet helped Johnson get a group of Rome businessmen to financially support the project. The school opened out of a rented two-story brick house with four pupils in 1875. It began under the name of the Central New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes. In 1931, the name of the school was changed to the Central New York School for the Deaf. The school became a state facility in 1963 and the name was changed to the New York State School for the Deaf and now sits on 17 acres of land.