|
Head Waters couple restoring school house
BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
 | | Head Waters School served the Head Waters community from the late 1800s to around 1950. After many years service as a hunting camp, the building is being remodeled by new owners Cy Houff and Karyn Doane. Their intention is to return the building to its original appearance as a schoolhouse in the late 1800s. |
|
MONTEREY - "It's like taking a step back in time," said Cy Houff. "This school house goes back to a period of time nobody remembers anything about."
Houff and partner Karyn Doane are renovating the Head Waters School, a one-room school house that probably dates back to the late 1800s.
They are not restoring, they are saving it, said Doane. A full restoration would be too expensive for the two of them to handle.
"I couldn't see the building coming down," said Doane. "I want people to see the workmanship of this building. We are almost done with the exterior, giving it a complete facelift. We are trying to salvage whatever we could to keep it original. In doing so we uncovered the most beautiful large chestnut beams that were hand hewn and square nails that were painstakingly forged."
 | | Cy Houff points at one of the original chestnut beams in the old Head Waters School House. (Recorder photos by James Jacenich) |
|
Houff, a retired furniture restorer, said the school house was built with solid chestnut beams - 8x8 beams around the base, 6x6 perpendicular to those.
"It's post-and-beam construction," said Houff. "It's all hand-cut timber. Everything was done by hand. We found wood pegs and blacksmith nails used in the original construction of the building."
The front door had to be replaced, though Doane and Houff found an old school door that resembles the original.
The walls are now sealed and the door closed to stray visitors such as the occasional black bear intent on making the old building a cozy winter's den. A new roof and fresh coat of paint protect the interior from further incursions of rain and wind. The windows were replaced with aluminum windows. The original windows were saved, however, and may be displayed in the building.
Doane and Houff hope to have the building open for tours by next Maple Festival, if the indoor remodeling goes as planned.
 | | Cy Houff and Karyn Doane stand in front of the Head Waters Schoolhouse. They moved to Highland in 2004 and began remodeling the old structure, saving many of the original features. Houff and Doane intend to open the schoolhouse for tours during Maple festivals. |
|
"This winter we plan to tackle the interior - another major undertaking," said Doane. "Our goal is to open the school during Maple Festival, county fair, and Hands and Harvest, hopefully in 2008 but more likely 2009. We would like to share with others what our forefathers did - they gave so much time, hard work and had so much pride in building … much of this is a lost art. Plus we'd like to show children what it was like to go to school 100-plus years ago."
Doane said she was able to find references to the school in The Recorder dating back to 1889; the school closed around 1949-1950.
"It's a mystery," said Doane. "When did it close exactly? When did the property go up for sale? When was the building built?"
"We've got just enough information to pique our curiosity," said Houff.
Houff and Doane bought the property from Wanda and Jim Clevinger in 2002. Houff and Doane moved to Highland County in 2004 and built a house on top of the hill. They also started refurbishing the old school house.
"Oh, Lord," Houff responded when asked how much time has gone into the facelift. "Hundreds and hundreds of hours. But you can't put a price on it."
The building so far has cost about $5,000 for materials, said Houff.
The Head Waters School house is on Lower Fork Road, just off U.S. 250 in Head Waters. It sits above the road on a hill and is hidden from view by trees. A driveway comes up the hill behind the school. The only door faces the north, where no road now exists, though one can imagine at one time there must have been another route to the school.
An interior wall in the old school shows the outline of where a chalkboard must have once hung. One can almost hear the scratch of chalk on the board as Head Waters students practiced their math or writing skills. A hole in the ceiling may have held a stovepipe, but the missing stove that kept schoolchildren warm in winters past is gone.
Houff and Doane want to learn more about the school. They've done research in all the normal places - library, school board office, and office of the circuit court clerk. But official records are hard to find or no longer exist.
Doane and Houff ask anyone with information on the history of the Head Waters School to call them at (540) 396-3489.
| 
)
)
)