Who we are

Welcome to Hop Brook Elementary School!

Mission Statement

We, the Hop Brook School Community, are committed to providing a safe, nurturing, positive learning environment where children are encouraged to develop to their fullest potential intellectually, socially, and emotionally. We will encourage students to take risks, advise them of their progress, and set measurable and observable grade level goals and objectives. In partnership with the home, we will work together to instill a love of learning, thereby encouraging students to become lifelong learners and contributing members of society.

Hop Brook at a Glance

• 322 Students enrolled
• 2017 Community Garden started
• 2018-19 School of Distinction
• 1st - 2017
  2nd - 2018
  3rd - 2019 Goodwill Bag it Up Challenge
• 1916 Year founded

• Husky: school mascot

School History

On September 8, 1916, the new Union City School, later to be called Hop Brook , welcomed  its students from the old school. Theodate Pope Riddle, a renowned woman architect, had been given the commission for the design.  Harris Whittemore gave the school to the town, just as his father had given Salem and Hillside schools to the people of Naugatuck.  Unique to this building was a separate kindergarten cottage, fireplaces, and a playful "ABC" motif that was repeated throughout the building. 

In 1993 an extensive renovation was completed adding nine new classrooms, a media center and a larger cafe and gymnasium. The Architectural firm of Stecker, LaBau, Arneill and McManus, Inc. was responsible for the $6.9 million improvement. Daniel Davis, a professor of architect at the University of Hartford, designed the building.

In 1994 Hop Brook School was the only school chosen for the 1994 design award by the CT chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

(information provided by Naugatuck Historical Society)

Theodate Pope Riddle

(1867-1946)

Self-taught and one of the countries first female architects, Theodate would design her parents' home, Hillstead, in Farmington and The Westover School in Middlebury. In 1914, Theodate designed the Union City School (later renamed Hop Brook) for children of foreign laborers in the Union City section of Naugatuck.