The Little Red Schoolhouse in Moriches turns 100 next year, and members of a local civic group want to see the Town of Brookhaven declare it a historic landmark.

They’re concerned that without landmark status, the building could be torn down, moved, or altered so significantly that it loses its historic character.

Landmark status would give the building “some protection,” said John Sicignano, president of the Mastic Park Civic Association.

“It’s been part of the community for almost 100 years,” Sicignano said.

The building on Montauk Highway is in front of the Moriches satellite branch of the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library. The Little Red Schoolhouse holds special importance to Joe May, of the Mastic Park Civic Association.

“If you didn’t go to Center Moriches, that was the school you went to,” said May, 79, a retired Suffolk County police officer, who was among the youngsters who attended school there in the years it was used as classroom space until the early 1980s.

May was part of a group that met last week with Brookhaven Town supervisor Dan Panico and councilmember Karen Dunne Kesnig (6th District) to press their case for the town declaring the building a historic landmark. May and the others would like to see the building turned into a community center or history museum.

Dunne Kesnig said in an email that no decisions were made coming out of the meeting, but they and town historian Barbara Russell will visit the Little Red Schoolhouse “to assess its present condition” and meet again.

This is the latest move in an effort that dates back years.

In 2019, May gathered more than 2,200 signatures on a Change.org petition asking that the building be preserved. A separate petition for landmark designation has about 200 signatures so far, May said.

The William Floyd School District still owns the building, but “is in the final stages of transferring ownership to the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library,” school district spokesman James Montalto said in an email.

Kerry Rosales, the library’s director, said in a statement that “the library does indeed have plans to restore and repurpose the building. However, our focus had to shift to completing the main library’s expansion and renovation project, as well as the two new branches.”

Rosales said that “despite these challenges, the library trustees are committed to working with community leaders to restore the LRS. We are currently working with our architect to determine the full scope and cost of the renovation. Once this is established, we plan to engage with community civic groups, elected officials, and nonprofit organizations to secure private funding and government grants for the project.”

Rosales said that among the potential uses are “as a community meeting space, hosting a local history collection, or use by one of the library’s not-for-profits such as the Community Family Literacy Project and Friends of the Arts.”

While the library hasn’t officially weighed in on whether Brookhaven should declare the Little Red Schoolhouse a historic landmark, the president of the library’s board of trustees seems cool to the idea.

“While the board has not taken a formal position, we are greatly concerned that an official historic designation would limit the types of uses of a renovated building, while significantly increasing the cost of restoration,” board of trustees president Joseph Maiorana said in a statement.

Meanwhile, May said he and the others remain committed to fighting for landmark status.

“They understand we’re not going away,” he said.