Built in 1923, the John D. Hardy Elementary School was the first modern schoolhouse located in the Fells district. Constructed to accommodate the recent explosion in the population within the Fells – an area of the town that had avoided significant residential development up to the late 1910s – the Hardy School replaced the one-room Fells School (now the Fells Branch Library) that was located on the opposite side of Weston Road and had served the district since it was built in 1858.