The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Historic school renovation progresses
A glimpse of the holes in the walls, peeling paint, rotting wood and water damage that once greeted volunteers from the Brownhelm Historical Association 10 years ago, can still be seen upstairs in the Historic Brownhelm School and Museum, 1940 North Ridge Road in Vermilion.
“If you look upstairs, it looked like it did when we first walked in here,” said Marilyn Brill, historian for the Brownhelm Historical Association. “We didn’t know where to start.”
However dismal the school’s conditions, a handful of volunteers outfitted with hard hats took to restoring the school room by room every Tuesday after the historical association began leasing out the building from Brownhelm Township in 2008.
Prior to solidifying the lease, a group from the historical association visited the school and took chalkboards from the walls in fear of them being destroyed if their project was not approved.
“We literally took the railings off the stairs,” said Brill, whose husband is an alumnus of the school. “They were ready to demo this (building.) Within two months, they would have taken this down.”
The Brownhelm School was active from 1889 to 1988 and underwent two expansions: one in 1905 and another in 1922 that added a gymnasium and two classrooms.
The school was K-12 until 1954, when it was converted into an elementary school before closing down.
Renovations of the school began after 20 years of vacancy.
Today, the entire exterior of the school has been renovated thanks to an anonymous $100,000 donation.
Gutters have been replaced to help with water damage and much of the school’s roof was replaced, as well as its front steps.
“Those are the people that live out here and are just generous,” Brill said of local donors. “They see what we’ve done and they can’t come and work on Tuesday, but they can write a check.”
Not a single cent of the historical association’s renovation funds have come from the tax payer, Brill said.
Instead, the donations have come from the community, she said.
In the school’s interior, original hardwood floors and brick walls have been exposed and cleaned up, countless layers of paint have been scraped from metal doors and their frames, fresh paint now is covering the hallways, a new wheelchair-accessible bathroom and new marble counter tops have been donated and installed on the first floor.
Water, plumbing and electric also was installed, including a new electric furnace and air-conditioning for the entire first floor.
Additional bathrooms are being added to the basement.
“I don’t foresee ever getting the whole building done,” said Bob Leimbach, former president of the historical association.
Countless artifacts from the school’s history either were donated or discovered during the renovations, from teeter-totters found in the boiler room in the basement to an old window found in the attic.
Although it is Brill and Leimbach’s goal to keep the building looking as authentic as possible, the township had other plans for the structure while the lease was being solidified.
“During the original study, they did look at saving the shell of the building, but putting a new building inside of it,” Leimbach said.
Brill added that an elevator was included in the original plan.
“So, that’s really the value of the school,” Leimbach said, who attended the school from 1955 to 1961. “It’s not exactly what it was, but it’s very close. The classrooms at some period were like that.”
The historical association will host an open house Sept. 8 for the school for people to learn about its history, view artifacts and see the renovations.