The Sherwood Select School was constructed circa 1827. It later became known informally as the Emily Howland School, named for the local abolitionist, suffragist, and education reformer who was among the school's principal supporters. The building was demolished in 1955; a bell from the old building’s cupola was retained and eventually installed in a twentieth-century public school next door that had assumed the Emily Howland name.
A plaque at that school commemorated Howland’s receipt of an honorary doctorate, the first granted to a woman by the University of the State of New York. Its inscription read:"Citizen of Sherwood for more than a century, Emily Howland worked for Abolition of Slavery, Education of the negro, Woman’s Suffrage, Temperance and World Peace. In her 99th year the University of the State of New York conferred upon her the degree of Doctor of Letters. In 1882 she erected Sherwood Select School on this site and largely financed it until 1926 when she gave it to be organized as a public school."
In response to changing enrollment patterns, the newer Emily Howland Elementary School was closed and sold to a private buyer in 2013.