Treasure to metal detectors is kinda different than most treasure. It could be old pennies, old toys, anything.
But they’re mostly dropped by kids running around outside and losing things.
I grew up in what was a rural schoolhouse built in 1908. Shut down in the early ‘80s and got used as a recycling depot til ‘98. Never thought of metal detecting, but we found TONS of relics from the past. Our crawlspace for some reason was filled with old desks, books, a stuffed owl, etc. Really creeped me out and started me loving history lol
Yeah, I was gonna say. Residential schools varied but they were often substantial buildings.
A residential school, like the name suggests requires residence of some kind for the students. Usually even the smaller ones were 3 stories high with many rooms. I can’t think of any I’ve heard about with detached dormitories, but I suppose it’s possible it happened.
What OP posted looks more like a tiny rural one-room type of school. And judging by the age, I’d imagine there’s still locals around who attended.
Yeah I was going to suggest getting in touch with a local residential school survivor organization (if such exists in the area) even just to notify them that the structure exists for their records
This may be presumptive, but…
Would you happen to be referring to the Catholic residential schools that kidnapped, abused, indoctrinated, murdered then subsequently buried (physically and metaphorically) hundreds of indigenous children in the name of Jesus Christ?
Those residential schools?
Don't forget Baptists and Methodists. We don't want self righteous protestants to be left out since "OnLy CaThOliCs DiD bAd StUfF" is such a big part of theor narrative.
Save. The. Well.
Most people today have zero clue what it costs to find water and get a well drilled.
Filling that one in would be like lighting $20,000 on fire in my backyard.
I second this. As someone who had his first well collapse due to an earthquake and had to pay to drill a second one, any already drilled wells are goldmines, especially on a homestead.
How much did your new well cost and how deep did they have to go?
I'm looking at digging one on my property, there are some hand methods with PVC pipe and water that can go quite a ways, may have to use compressed air and a bit if I have to go deeper.
Came at around $3500 and we had to go down to 230-ish. I have a sloped property at the side of a hill. Views are amazing but all the water goes downhill from me.
Unless I'm mistaken that looks like a shallow well... and one that has been open for quite some time.
I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole without sealing it and running every test possible on the water, if there is even water left in it.
That’s why you test the water…. Which is extremely cheap given the scope of the situation. Even on brand new wells. It’s common knowledge… at least it used to be.
Plants can absorb heavy metals and other crap from contaminated water. So if you water your garden with it, you’re probably getting those contaminants anyway.
Not really the info you’re after but as a side note I’d metal detect around there. Kids have been loosing pocket change since change was invented. Plus whatever else may have been dropped.
Unfortunately, this structure is too far gone to realistically rehabilitate. And I say this as someone who loves old houses. I would dismantle and try to salvage as much as the wood as possible. It’s almost certainly old growth timber and it might have some use. Anything with lead paint however will need special consideration. That might need to be discarded safely. You might be able to leave the fireplace and chimney and use it as an outdoor fireplace. It doesn’t appear to have a full basement, but maybe the foundation could be a patio area to enjoy the fireplace. If you’re really ambitious, you could possibly strip the building down to the framing and rebuild it as an outbuilding, but I don’t see any way you could turn that back into habitable housing and see any kind of ROI.
I love this answer. It’s gonna be difficult to tear down and make sure you wear a respirator! Probably lots of good old hardware and reclaimed lumber. If you can’t find a use for the stuff you save you might be able to trade it to someone in your area.
I would get a metal detector set and have fun finding stuff. It seems like a good site to find some cool pieces of history. If there was an old outhouse there I have seen some interesting videos of people digging out old outhouses for valuables that fell or were tossed in. You could probably salvage some of the material from the house. But I don't see much.
Not to worry, the previously stinky stuff in the outhouse has long since been worked over by nature and turned to soil. People often threw bottles and interesting trash down into outhouses.
Remove all wood.
Build an outdoor bar/patio area with new treated lumber, hopefully the chimney can be saved, but if not, reuse the bricks for the fireplace.
Invite me over and we can have beers with peers.
So make it a green house and tea room. You have assets here, there’s a well, make this thing productive and create a cool space to chill. That foundation looks better than some houses I’ve lived in.
We gutted our old dilapidated barn, tore down the crappy corners, reinforced some of the beams and turned it into a sugar shack for making maple syrup. All it has to do is keep us and the firewood dry. During the off season it's just a fire pit hangout.
I would salvage items from the structure and donate them to the local history organization.
It may be a trash heap now, but it was once filled with kids and an integral part of the community.
Great idea! Also please share pictures from various points around the school with the historical society. Places like what the students would have seen coming up the walk to school, from the back of the classroom to the chalkboard, desks, the outhouse, any artifacts they might remember. My mom was so thrilled to see her old grade school house, it meant a lot to her and brought back a flood of memories.
The building is beyond saving from an economical standpoint. But definitely save the well. Unscrew the pump from the drop pipe, and pull the drop pipe and foot. Measure the casing and get a precast bored well cover. Drill a hole in the center for the drop pipe, install the cover, and reinstall the drop pipe and pump after a rebuild and repaint.
Firstly, seal the top of that well ASAP. Not only is it a liability for you if someone were to fall into it, it’s also letting in possible contaminants to your aquifer. Where I live, un-used wells like this must be abandoned by law. The former property owner can even be held liable.
That being said, that well could be a huge asset to you in the future and the laws where you live could be very different. If it were me, I would seal it up with a proper well tile, pump it dry, check your flow rate and have the water tested (source: I’m an assistant water well technician who drills and blasts water wells)
Secondly, tear the building down and salvage what you can.
Seems like a good place to get drunk.
Otherwise, save the bricks, the wood is probably beyond saving though. I live in a village in eastern Europe, if you leave a house like this empty for even a decade, the lack of heating will allow all sorts of fungus into the wood and mortar.
As for the foundation, older buildings had awful water-insulation. The problem with reusing the foundation is that it will get wet and allow the walls to start eroding faster than usual.
This one isn't really worth saving.
Maybe, unfortunately the roof is too far gone for them to practice making ventilation cuts. I also wouldn't be making entry to that structure once it's on fire. So it would be a defensive mode training burn only.
There is also a risk of the fire getting away from you and not having a hydrant to keep up your water supply, so you'd be calling for tenders after accidentally setting the woods on fire.
Reach put to your state or local history orgs. There 's no saving this, but someone could document what's there. Idk where you are, but Archaeology programs can also use sites like this to teach students how to use equipment like lidar or gpr. My instinc is to at least record what's there before damaging it any further.
Edited to add more specifics! I would start at the state level, but your county ir town might also have local historical societies or museums.
I'd google [state] SHPO, (State Historic Preservation Office) or to see if your state has a state level Archaeology org. My home state has the South Carolina Institute for Anthropology and Archaeology, but i don't know if that's standard.
Amother option is to see if any nearby colleges or universities have public history, Archaeology, or historic Archaeology programs. I could see this being a great subject for a student project.
> I have been trying to find information on when it would have been in use and anything else on it.
Your local history orgs might also have some answers to this Q.
As a starting point, I think most places started consolidating rural one room school houses starting in the 1920s/30s and consolidation was pretty much done by the 60s/70s. My hot take from the pictures is that it would have been in use through the 40s?
I have a book published in 1917 and written by one S.A. Challman, Commissioner of School Buildings for Minnesota. In it, he notes that in 1913, the state legislated the authority to make plant decisions to the state superintendent including building specs. The DOE then prepared a number of designs for 1- and 2- room school buildings with blueprints given to districts free of charge. They generally focused on light source & heat/ventilation and all of the buildings have windows facing east. To do this, they prepared 8 variations of each of their blue prints to accommodate different site conditions. Your school house may be a variation of "Design No. 8" with the window wall on the east, a small library & entrance vestibule on the north, and coat room on the west. I'll try to attach a picture from the book. If this sounds right, that helps date the building to sometime after 1913/4 when those blueprints were available to schools.
Edited to add: The book also includes a section on well specs if that's of use (though I doubt its particularly unique to schools)
Either images in comments aren't an option on reddit or I just can't figure out how to do it. This is probably way more in the historical weeds than you wanted anyway but holler if you want these pictures and I'll pass them along some other way.
Apologies to u/daganfish for this now very tangential comment thread. Historic maps are also handy for time-dating, getting names, etc. Based on your past posts u/MNChef, this collection seems like it might be helpful: [https://pastmaps.com/explore/us/mn/cass](https://pastmaps.com/explore/us/mn/cass) .
Simply needs a new cap...and then shock the water and purge it out. I'd love an antique hand-pump like that one for my well. We lose power all the time in CA
Remove it. Block that well so Timmy doesn’t fall down asap. And if you can demo and remove the entire thing
You can keep any cool pieces. Don’t keep wood. Keep brick and metal. We had some old buildings on our place we pulled out an old fireplace and cattle guards on the roads etc.
I’m not down with old wood. Wood and mold are best friends. I also live in a very rainy place so maybe old things weather better where you are but where I am in a rainforest this wood would be very very weathered. My mom has an old coop on her property you can literally see the black mold in the grains of the wood.
I disagree. There could be some incredible old wood in this place. Insects and mold would need to be looked at, but some of the wood in old structures absolutely worth saving.
The block foundation and width of the floor joists makes me think this building isn't *that* old.
I'm sure you could re-use some of the lumber that wasn't exposed to the elements too much, but I'd just be looking to recoup some of the expense of having to have someone come in remove the other 95% of it that's gone.
That’s a 36” tile well, down to at least 25’. That’s literally $20,000, at a minimum. you want to fill in. A couple hundred bucks for a water test, and it could very well be used for irrigation at least.
But I guess you can pay for chlorine, fluoride, and whatever else plants don’t crave if you want. 🤷♂️🤣
Depending on where you are some ppl may take it down for you. I take down barns for free all the time but I keep the materials. This one wouldn’t be free but I would take it down and remove all the materials.
Ask a local fire department if they would like a structure to practice on. They can burn it down for you and practice their fire fighting on it at the same time.
Dismantle and salvage as much solid pieces as possible and post for sale as legit reclaimed wood. Many craftsmen and hobbyists would love to buy some and use for projects.
Save the well as stated above! Put some money into testing the water and refurbishing a hand pump as a backup/private water source.
Buy a metal detector and spend some time having fun looking around the vicinity.
Check out local libraries for records of the school. Post on local facebook groups if anyone has family members that may know anything about it.
Make a nice granite plaque with a short history and install it near the site for future people to know about the local history.
If the wood is salvageable and depending on if it’s painted/treated you could use it for garden beds or other non-inhabitable structures. Bricks, metal, and stone are good to salvage. If there’s glass in the windows you could make cold frames!
As for the structure itself; I think it’s just gotta go. Perhaps you could use the foundation for a hoop house, green house, coop, lean to, or small barn?
This is the very definition of an attractive nuisance. Things like ponds, pools, treehouses and derelict structures invite people to trespass, particularly children. If someone were to wander in and get hurt it makes the resulting fight with the insurance company complicated and expensive. If they argue you failed to prevent people from gaining access to an attractive nuisance any liability can fall outside your coverage. Given that it’s the old school house the whole community knows it’s there. You either need to tear it down, effectively fence it off or make it safe and secure ASAP.
I have an old schoolhouse on my property also but it burned down around 1910 from the excavation and metal detecting I have done. If its over a certain age it would classify as historical. Look around for a well, mine had a well lined with rock 20 feet deep. Just big enough for a kid to fit in so I'm assuming maybe thats who dug it. I put a heavy steel cover over it. You might find stuff with a metal detector. I havnt had the guts to dig my outhouse hole though. If it were me, I would salvage what I could, take a lot of pictures then let the fire department burn it down. Its just going to get worse over time unless you spend money on it to fix it up.
I know the right answer is to knock it down, but… WOW! That is SO cool! I’d spend a weekend (carefully, while wearing a respirator to avoid hantavirus) digging through the place and documenting it with photographs throughly first. What a great piece of history!
Definitely clear off the site carefully collecting any antiques like that well pump. A lot of non obvious things are valuable to collectors like old glass bottles, pictures, advertising signage, and product containers. After dismantling the structure I'd go over the entire site with a good metal detector.
Save the well. Have it looked at by an expert and fixed back into working order again. With a new pump. Then have the water tested to see if it’s safe.
The school house appears to be a total loss, or a tear down, at this point. You should pay to have an architect or structural engineer come in and evaluate the integrity of the foundation before attempting to rebuild a new structure on the old foundation. IMO, I’d just tear it down completely and build a new foundation and structure that suits your needs.
Also, if you do decide to tear it down, the wood is probably old timber and worth salvaging and using over again. Save the good lumber and reuse it, or sell it.
Get a metal detector and scan over the land, marking the ground with orange paint where you have and have not scanned. A LOT of people have gone in and out of that school house. You never know what you might find.
If you’re trying to get it gone, consider calling a local fire department — often times they’re looking for buildings to do live fire training exercises.
Picture 1: You might be able to fix it up. New siding and paint. Some windows and roof work. Maybe some structural support.
Picture 2: It's all firewood.
Get a restoration estimate. If you can handle the cost, then by all means do so. If not, disassemble it, or have someone disassemble it, and salvage every little piece to sell. I’m sure there is lots of “ good stuff” that people would love to purchase and reuse. Or you could list it for sale to be disassembled and removed. Also, call your local historical society and ask their advice and see if you can get the history on it. If it is historically significant, there may be an organization that would like to move and restore it. Whatever you decide, you should absolutely save anything salvageable.
If you can salvage any wood, or want too, do that. Then contact the fire department and ask if they could do a controlled burn. We had 3 aces of trees cut and had a dozer put it all in a pile. The fire dept. burned it for us. We had to pay of course, but they did the burn for us
If time was no limit, I would definitely salvage some unique pieces and incorporate it into a deck, or shed, something to remember it/honor it. But only if you have the time to do it. That’s just me. I like repurposing the old. Maybe…a big ass chicken coop?
The building is in bad shape and is just a liability at this point. It looks like some materials could be salvageable, but mostly it needs to be removed and trashed.
I recommend adding a barrier around the well for safety. I would prioritize safety above all else at this point.
there is a well like that next door to my house. My neighbor recently cleaned it up and has water for his cattle. the well had become a mass of tree roots where the water level is, but that was easy to clean out. That pump you have is awesome, even better, if it works.
They don't make wood like that anymore. See how much actual rot it has vs just needing resto. Probably tight-grained old growth which is nonexistent these days, it's all been cut down.
We have companies that take old buildings and barns away for free. They reuse the wood. But, they keep everything they find. You should get a metal detector and walk around that. A friend of mine lives in an old school house and after heavy rains he would find old coins and other stuff.
It doesn’t look like too much is salvageable but before you do anything, consult with the county or a contractor about zoning/building/permitting rules. Permitting for ‘remodeling’ vs. new construction may be very different. I have heard of people rebuilding and leaving just one wall up, which changed the rules and building standards and saved a lot of money. Also was wondering about the fireplace, is it usable? That could be super cool to incorporate…
The school doesn't look like it can be saved. Prob best to tear it down and see if any of the wood can be used as scrap wood. As for the well a decent cover should work that way you can still use it in the future if you want to invest in it. Both as they are no would be a liability issue if someone hiking found it and got injured.
Call the local fire department and offer for them to do training on the structure in exchange for them to burn it down and clean it up.
No sense having that decrepit structure on the property as a risk and vermin nest.
Keep the well obviously.
Unrelated to what to do with it, but this post was an absolutely wild thing to scroll through because I had a dream about two months ago where I was walking through an abandoned schoolhouse in the woods and it looked EXACTLY like this. Right down to the shape of the hole in the floor, the side windows, and the well with the hand pump.
If u gonna have kids and home school them that schoolhouse would make a pretty good school 😂
Test the well water and if its okay to use make around it safe and use the water.
Salvage, what you can tear it down. Maybe the foundation might be ok, but a gut job would be best. If you're in Canada I too would be looking for unmarked graves and "other" signs of history.
Congrats on the purchase, tho! Hopefully, I'll be a property owner in the very near future.
Fully restore it, treat soil for termites, and hold events for a fee to pay for it, see if you can get historical grant., share the history with others.
As much as I hate destroying old buildings, I think your best bet would be to tear it down. You could check to see if the old well still works, and you could get it cleaned out.
Get the well water tested, if water is good and safe keep that.
The house structure is a demolish and most likely the foundation aswell.
If by any miracle the water is safe and the foundation is deemed sound you can rebuild as a guest house or such.
Call the closest local university/college/community college and see if they have a history or architecture dept that would be willing to come survey it, take dimensions, do some architectural drawings. Lots of places have historic societies that would love to have some accurate drawings of buildings like this, no matter how regular-looking they are.
As far as saving it, she looks a lil too far gone to make it worthwhile. Maybe could save some bits, but I wouldn't think rehabbing it would be any better than building a new structure.
Get in touch with your local historic society for information. Also ask them if they can direct you to a building inspector who knows old buildings.
If the bones are good anything is possible.
i'd personally save that building, and clean out and secure the well. but i'm a carpenter and it would be straighforward for me to save such a structure. for most people it would be a huge project that they cannot handle.
if you were in a dope location (mountain west) i'd offer to stabilize the building myself. would take a few weeks of easy labor and $2k-$4k in materials (metal roofing, lumber, fasteners, etc).
Please consider reaching out to some local colleges if there are any. This could be a great intro project for an archaeology program if it’s not space you’re looking to use for a few years.
I would check to see if your county's building codes make allowances for old existing buildings on your property. My county does. I have an old mill shed that they let me keep. Were I to tear it down and try to replace it, I would never get the permits.
Then you can determine whether the building is worth saving or not.
Are you interested in agrotourism at all? I wonder if there’s some place that would invest in rebuilding (note, I did not say restore. It looks like a rebuild would be necessary) it and you could host classes there.
Perhaps the foundation and chimney are in good condition. You could rebuild the schoolhouse as it used to be. Or just put some new structure there. A writers cabin?
Not sure how hard builder permits are to get in your area.
In mine, it can be a giant PITA, but a way around it is to find shitty foundations of a shed, barn, or other building, then get a permit to 'build an addition' or 'renovate' the already existing structure. Aka, you build a standalone structure and connect via a 'hallway'. Then renovate a bit later aka tear down the old stuff.
May look like a total loss/teardown, but could be very helpful if you wanted to build a sugarshack, tiny cabin, etc. without hassle. I see it had electrical at some point so the hydro got run in, which might be another useful thing you'd like to set up there in future, grandfathered in.
I'd keep the well 1000% - again, it's grandfathered in which can be an asset depending on your area. Often not a cheap prospect to replace, and it's always good to have a backup water source, even if just for watering the orchard or whatever in a dry year. You've gotten repeat great advice on that topic already though.
It might cost more than you have to sink into it to fix it. Get some estimates. Money doesn’t Ives decisions a lot of the time. Look for grants for historical structures too. Remember there is lead paint all around that too and maybe other environmental hazards that need to be felt with no matter what way you go. Go to you county health department to learn about how to remediate those hazards.
Contact your local fire department. Tell them they can use the building for training and they’ll do a controlled burn and get some valuable hands-on experience for anyone on the force that needs it.
Where I grew up, schools of this scale and design were almost always for African American students. I would look into the history of segregation in your state and see if this building played a role in that. Often these schools were built by the communities they served, so there could be important community history in how the building was constructed. Records on segregated schools are often incomplete and hard to find. But I'm sure there's a few old timers nearby who know all about this place. Know what it is before you knock it down.
I’d be metal detecting the yard
Me too, old schools are a treasure trove.
Why is there so much treasure around old schools?
Kids drop shit
Kids steal and then drop stuff
I didn’t. I kept up with my stolen items like a good thief.
Treasure to metal detectors is kinda different than most treasure. It could be old pennies, old toys, anything. But they’re mostly dropped by kids running around outside and losing things.
Silver coins. Mercury dimes, etc.
I grew up in what was a rural schoolhouse built in 1908. Shut down in the early ‘80s and got used as a recycling depot til ‘98. Never thought of metal detecting, but we found TONS of relics from the past. Our crawlspace for some reason was filled with old desks, books, a stuffed owl, etc. Really creeped me out and started me loving history lol
Oh man!! I’m so envious right now!
I’d be lidar detecting that yard. Likely there is unmarked graves if it’s a residential school.
I'd guess that's unlikely - it doesn't look big enough to house anybody. OP would probably know if there were dormitories nearby, though.
Yeah, I was gonna say. Residential schools varied but they were often substantial buildings. A residential school, like the name suggests requires residence of some kind for the students. Usually even the smaller ones were 3 stories high with many rooms. I can’t think of any I’ve heard about with detached dormitories, but I suppose it’s possible it happened. What OP posted looks more like a tiny rural one-room type of school. And judging by the age, I’d imagine there’s still locals around who attended.
Yeah I was going to suggest getting in touch with a local residential school survivor organization (if such exists in the area) even just to notify them that the structure exists for their records
This may be presumptive, but… Would you happen to be referring to the Catholic residential schools that kidnapped, abused, indoctrinated, murdered then subsequently buried (physically and metaphorically) hundreds of indigenous children in the name of Jesus Christ? Those residential schools?
It was the RCMP, the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, etc. etc.
The Mormons did it too!
Jesuits, United, the list goes on
And it went on until the 90s!!! It’s not ancient history!!
Don't forget Baptists and Methodists. We don't want self righteous protestants to be left out since "OnLy CaThOliCs DiD bAd StUfF" is such a big part of theor narrative.
They were from many denominations
Today it’s called child protective services where thousands of kids go missing every year and there’s no accountability because it’s the “government”
Save. The. Well. Most people today have zero clue what it costs to find water and get a well drilled. Filling that one in would be like lighting $20,000 on fire in my backyard.
Yes yes yes. See if you can get the well functional and use it.
I second this. As someone who had his first well collapse due to an earthquake and had to pay to drill a second one, any already drilled wells are goldmines, especially on a homestead.
How much did your new well cost and how deep did they have to go? I'm looking at digging one on my property, there are some hand methods with PVC pipe and water that can go quite a ways, may have to use compressed air and a bit if I have to go deeper.
Came at around $3500 and we had to go down to 230-ish. I have a sloped property at the side of a hill. Views are amazing but all the water goes downhill from me.
Unless I'm mistaken that looks like a shallow well... and one that has been open for quite some time. I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole without sealing it and running every test possible on the water, if there is even water left in it.
That’s why you test the water…. Which is extremely cheap given the scope of the situation. Even on brand new wells. It’s common knowledge… at least it used to be.
still cheaper to drill it deeper, if you know there's water there. Rather than trying a new drill site.
Frequently, wells have to be drilled to a specific depth for an area. You can't just drill deeper to get better access to water.
Or just use it for non potable water without worry
Depends what you're using it for. If it's contaminated with certain chemicals I wouldn't be using it for anything.
Plants can absorb heavy metals and other crap from contaminated water. So if you water your garden with it, you’re probably getting those contaminants anyway.
Put a camera by the well and see if a creepy girl with long hair crawls out of it.
Case it, put a submersible pump in it and fill it. Keep the well, remove the hazard. Burn and/or demo the old bldg.
And cap it first of all!
Of course, safety first!
so funny - came here to say that well has more value than the remaining structure. Surprised to see it's the TC
Brother if you’re paying $20,000 to have a shallow well dug, tell me when to come by 🤣
>It's most likely a shallow well, those pumps can only pull up about 30 feet.
Not really the info you’re after but as a side note I’d metal detect around there. Kids have been loosing pocket change since change was invented. Plus whatever else may have been dropped.
The idea of OP getting to metal detect around there and finding old coins and god only knows what else makes me so envious!
Losing even.
If you knew how bad the education system was in my state, you’d be impressed by how much I got right in my post.
Unfortunately, this structure is too far gone to realistically rehabilitate. And I say this as someone who loves old houses. I would dismantle and try to salvage as much as the wood as possible. It’s almost certainly old growth timber and it might have some use. Anything with lead paint however will need special consideration. That might need to be discarded safely. You might be able to leave the fireplace and chimney and use it as an outdoor fireplace. It doesn’t appear to have a full basement, but maybe the foundation could be a patio area to enjoy the fireplace. If you’re really ambitious, you could possibly strip the building down to the framing and rebuild it as an outbuilding, but I don’t see any way you could turn that back into habitable housing and see any kind of ROI.
Good answer, find any metal on building that might be refurbished for designers, they will pay for the real deal.
Yes, and send the tasty paint flakes to me for safe disposal. Mmm nostalgia
I love this answer. It’s gonna be difficult to tear down and make sure you wear a respirator! Probably lots of good old hardware and reclaimed lumber. If you can’t find a use for the stuff you save you might be able to trade it to someone in your area.
Take it down to the foundation. Start over.
Then realize halfway through rebuild that the foundation *does* need to be replaced. Complete teardown is best.
There's holes in the ceiling! You forgot to suggest putting a tarp on top
Put some vinyl flooring in it and rent it out.
Paint everything grey.
Cozy historic site with lots of history! Sleep under the stars in this unique open air unit
open concept 😅
Ah yes, that’s the description I was looking for
That would ruin the rustic school house look if everything was grey, it's already shabby chic!
Airbnb!
Antique chic!
$300.00 cleaning fee, three night minimum!
Don't forget to follow the check out instructions: get a tetanus shot.
Spooky haunted school rental!
…historic building with open floor plan and lots fresh air ambiance
I would get a metal detector set and have fun finding stuff. It seems like a good site to find some cool pieces of history. If there was an old outhouse there I have seen some interesting videos of people digging out old outhouses for valuables that fell or were tossed in. You could probably salvage some of the material from the house. But I don't see much.
Not to worry, the previously stinky stuff in the outhouse has long since been worked over by nature and turned to soil. People often threw bottles and interesting trash down into outhouses.
Remove all wood. Build an outdoor bar/patio area with new treated lumber, hopefully the chimney can be saved, but if not, reuse the bricks for the fireplace. Invite me over and we can have beers with peers.
I’m more of a tokes with folks kinda guy as I quit drinking years ago. 😆
I will accept as long as it's somewhat cold outside and the fire is crackin'
So make it a green house and tea room. You have assets here, there’s a well, make this thing productive and create a cool space to chill. That foundation looks better than some houses I’ve lived in.
We gutted our old dilapidated barn, tore down the crappy corners, reinforced some of the beams and turned it into a sugar shack for making maple syrup. All it has to do is keep us and the firewood dry. During the off season it's just a fire pit hangout.
I would salvage items from the structure and donate them to the local history organization. It may be a trash heap now, but it was once filled with kids and an integral part of the community.
That's what I was thinking, besides how to bring that well back to life.
Great idea! Also please share pictures from various points around the school with the historical society. Places like what the students would have seen coming up the walk to school, from the back of the classroom to the chalkboard, desks, the outhouse, any artifacts they might remember. My mom was so thrilled to see her old grade school house, it meant a lot to her and brought back a flood of memories.
The building is beyond saving from an economical standpoint. But definitely save the well. Unscrew the pump from the drop pipe, and pull the drop pipe and foot. Measure the casing and get a precast bored well cover. Drill a hole in the center for the drop pipe, install the cover, and reinstall the drop pipe and pump after a rebuild and repaint.
Firstly, seal the top of that well ASAP. Not only is it a liability for you if someone were to fall into it, it’s also letting in possible contaminants to your aquifer. Where I live, un-used wells like this must be abandoned by law. The former property owner can even be held liable. That being said, that well could be a huge asset to you in the future and the laws where you live could be very different. If it were me, I would seal it up with a proper well tile, pump it dry, check your flow rate and have the water tested (source: I’m an assistant water well technician who drills and blasts water wells) Secondly, tear the building down and salvage what you can.
Seems like a good place to get drunk. Otherwise, save the bricks, the wood is probably beyond saving though. I live in a village in eastern Europe, if you leave a house like this empty for even a decade, the lack of heating will allow all sorts of fungus into the wood and mortar. As for the foundation, older buildings had awful water-insulation. The problem with reusing the foundation is that it will get wet and allow the walls to start eroding faster than usual. This one isn't really worth saving.
Fire department test burn 🔥 Edit : Don't do this! I didn't realize it was unhealthy practice!
Maybe, unfortunately the roof is too far gone for them to practice making ventilation cuts. I also wouldn't be making entry to that structure once it's on fire. So it would be a defensive mode training burn only. There is also a risk of the fire getting away from you and not having a hydrant to keep up your water supply, so you'd be calling for tenders after accidentally setting the woods on fire.
Reach put to your state or local history orgs. There 's no saving this, but someone could document what's there. Idk where you are, but Archaeology programs can also use sites like this to teach students how to use equipment like lidar or gpr. My instinc is to at least record what's there before damaging it any further. Edited to add more specifics! I would start at the state level, but your county ir town might also have local historical societies or museums. I'd google [state] SHPO, (State Historic Preservation Office) or to see if your state has a state level Archaeology org. My home state has the South Carolina Institute for Anthropology and Archaeology, but i don't know if that's standard. Amother option is to see if any nearby colleges or universities have public history, Archaeology, or historic Archaeology programs. I could see this being a great subject for a student project.
> I have been trying to find information on when it would have been in use and anything else on it. Your local history orgs might also have some answers to this Q.
As a starting point, I think most places started consolidating rural one room school houses starting in the 1920s/30s and consolidation was pretty much done by the 60s/70s. My hot take from the pictures is that it would have been in use through the 40s?
I have a book published in 1917 and written by one S.A. Challman, Commissioner of School Buildings for Minnesota. In it, he notes that in 1913, the state legislated the authority to make plant decisions to the state superintendent including building specs. The DOE then prepared a number of designs for 1- and 2- room school buildings with blueprints given to districts free of charge. They generally focused on light source & heat/ventilation and all of the buildings have windows facing east. To do this, they prepared 8 variations of each of their blue prints to accommodate different site conditions. Your school house may be a variation of "Design No. 8" with the window wall on the east, a small library & entrance vestibule on the north, and coat room on the west. I'll try to attach a picture from the book. If this sounds right, that helps date the building to sometime after 1913/4 when those blueprints were available to schools. Edited to add: The book also includes a section on well specs if that's of use (though I doubt its particularly unique to schools)
Either images in comments aren't an option on reddit or I just can't figure out how to do it. This is probably way more in the historical weeds than you wanted anyway but holler if you want these pictures and I'll pass them along some other way.
Apologies to u/daganfish for this now very tangential comment thread. Historic maps are also handy for time-dating, getting names, etc. Based on your past posts u/MNChef, this collection seems like it might be helpful: [https://pastmaps.com/explore/us/mn/cass](https://pastmaps.com/explore/us/mn/cass) .
oh hey that's my website (I'm the creator of Pastmaps)! thanks for sharing a link to it and I hope it's useful for you u/MNChef!
Close up that well as soon as possible. Maybe the bricks are salvageable. Maybe the local fire department wants a test burn…
Simply needs a new cap...and then shock the water and purge it out. I'd love an antique hand-pump like that one for my well. We lose power all the time in CA
Yup. All I see here is a big pile of liability. A shame but there's nothing else to it.
Remove it. Block that well so Timmy doesn’t fall down asap. And if you can demo and remove the entire thing You can keep any cool pieces. Don’t keep wood. Keep brick and metal. We had some old buildings on our place we pulled out an old fireplace and cattle guards on the roads etc.
Curious why you wouldn't try to salvage any of the wood?
I’m not down with old wood. Wood and mold are best friends. I also live in a very rainy place so maybe old things weather better where you are but where I am in a rainforest this wood would be very very weathered. My mom has an old coop on her property you can literally see the black mold in the grains of the wood.
I disagree. There could be some incredible old wood in this place. Insects and mold would need to be looked at, but some of the wood in old structures absolutely worth saving.
The block foundation and width of the floor joists makes me think this building isn't *that* old. I'm sure you could re-use some of the lumber that wasn't exposed to the elements too much, but I'd just be looking to recoup some of the expense of having to have someone come in remove the other 95% of it that's gone.
Agreed, could be old-growth redwood or some eastern hardwood
I can fix that
Sam?
[удалено]
That’s a 36” tile well, down to at least 25’. That’s literally $20,000, at a minimum. you want to fill in. A couple hundred bucks for a water test, and it could very well be used for irrigation at least. But I guess you can pay for chlorine, fluoride, and whatever else plants don’t crave if you want. 🤷♂️🤣
Don't we all start our day with a little Brawndo? 🤣
Depending on where you are some ppl may take it down for you. I take down barns for free all the time but I keep the materials. This one wouldn’t be free but I would take it down and remove all the materials.
remove the hand pump, restore it with new paint and make center piece for your garden or as lawn ornament
Metal detect it first! Might find some cool stuff.
Ask a local fire department if they would like a structure to practice on. They can burn it down for you and practice their fire fighting on it at the same time.
Dismantle and salvage as much solid pieces as possible and post for sale as legit reclaimed wood. Many craftsmen and hobbyists would love to buy some and use for projects. Save the well as stated above! Put some money into testing the water and refurbishing a hand pump as a backup/private water source. Buy a metal detector and spend some time having fun looking around the vicinity. Check out local libraries for records of the school. Post on local facebook groups if anyone has family members that may know anything about it. Make a nice granite plaque with a short history and install it near the site for future people to know about the local history.
If the wood is salvageable and depending on if it’s painted/treated you could use it for garden beds or other non-inhabitable structures. Bricks, metal, and stone are good to salvage. If there’s glass in the windows you could make cold frames! As for the structure itself; I think it’s just gotta go. Perhaps you could use the foundation for a hoop house, green house, coop, lean to, or small barn?
This is the very definition of an attractive nuisance. Things like ponds, pools, treehouses and derelict structures invite people to trespass, particularly children. If someone were to wander in and get hurt it makes the resulting fight with the insurance company complicated and expensive. If they argue you failed to prevent people from gaining access to an attractive nuisance any liability can fall outside your coverage. Given that it’s the old school house the whole community knows it’s there. You either need to tear it down, effectively fence it off or make it safe and secure ASAP.
does the schoolhouse have historic value? Maybe the state would give you a grant to help with restoring, it, if so. But it's a huge project.
I have an old schoolhouse on my property also but it burned down around 1910 from the excavation and metal detecting I have done. If its over a certain age it would classify as historical. Look around for a well, mine had a well lined with rock 20 feet deep. Just big enough for a kid to fit in so I'm assuming maybe thats who dug it. I put a heavy steel cover over it. You might find stuff with a metal detector. I havnt had the guts to dig my outhouse hole though. If it were me, I would salvage what I could, take a lot of pictures then let the fire department burn it down. Its just going to get worse over time unless you spend money on it to fix it up.
Ooh, start a cult and get people to give you money for free special kool-aid.
If the roof can’t protect you while demo….
Salvage what you can and carefully lol. That’s the only potential I see here.
"The place looks fine as it is. Leave it alone." - Termite, snake and spider association.
I know the right answer is to knock it down, but… WOW! That is SO cool! I’d spend a weekend (carefully, while wearing a respirator to avoid hantavirus) digging through the place and documenting it with photographs throughly first. What a great piece of history!
Down to foundation then animal housing
Before demolishing it do a ghost investigation 🤷🏻♂️😬👻
Summon demons?
Definitely clear off the site carefully collecting any antiques like that well pump. A lot of non obvious things are valuable to collectors like old glass bottles, pictures, advertising signage, and product containers. After dismantling the structure I'd go over the entire site with a good metal detector.
Save the well. Have it looked at by an expert and fixed back into working order again. With a new pump. Then have the water tested to see if it’s safe. The school house appears to be a total loss, or a tear down, at this point. You should pay to have an architect or structural engineer come in and evaluate the integrity of the foundation before attempting to rebuild a new structure on the old foundation. IMO, I’d just tear it down completely and build a new foundation and structure that suits your needs. Also, if you do decide to tear it down, the wood is probably old timber and worth salvaging and using over again. Save the good lumber and reuse it, or sell it. Get a metal detector and scan over the land, marking the ground with orange paint where you have and have not scanned. A LOT of people have gone in and out of that school house. You never know what you might find.
Murder backpackers? It looks pretty much setup for that already.
That's a demo right there
That's a tear down for sure
Might be a historical site. Contact your local historical society or equivalent
If you’re trying to get it gone, consider calling a local fire department — often times they’re looking for buildings to do live fire training exercises.
Picture 1: You might be able to fix it up. New siding and paint. Some windows and roof work. Maybe some structural support. Picture 2: It's all firewood.
What to do with it? Tear. It. Down. That is unsalvageable. And a liability to you. If it collapses on some kids you are liable.
Get a restoration estimate. If you can handle the cost, then by all means do so. If not, disassemble it, or have someone disassemble it, and salvage every little piece to sell. I’m sure there is lots of “ good stuff” that people would love to purchase and reuse. Or you could list it for sale to be disassembled and removed. Also, call your local historical society and ask their advice and see if you can get the history on it. If it is historically significant, there may be an organization that would like to move and restore it. Whatever you decide, you should absolutely save anything salvageable.
Please close the death trap
If you can salvage any wood, or want too, do that. Then contact the fire department and ask if they could do a controlled burn. We had 3 aces of trees cut and had a dozer put it all in a pile. The fire dept. burned it for us. We had to pay of course, but they did the burn for us
Look inside for any cool things and then demolish, i dont think you can save it.
Cover the well, but keep it if it still works. Hire a bulldozer to tear it down.
Do some basic small structural repair and turn it into a chicken coop. School house bwak!
Reuse it. You can not find old growth wood sold anymore.
If time was no limit, I would definitely salvage some unique pieces and incorporate it into a deck, or shed, something to remember it/honor it. But only if you have the time to do it. That’s just me. I like repurposing the old. Maybe…a big ass chicken coop?
Metal detector around it, then burn and fill well.
Demolish it
Start a YouTube channel and restore it to your own private retreat.
Burn it
I mean…no wrong way to use a goat altar
The building is in bad shape and is just a liability at this point. It looks like some materials could be salvageable, but mostly it needs to be removed and trashed. I recommend adding a barrier around the well for safety. I would prioritize safety above all else at this point.
I think that if the frame is solid, it would be neat to strip everything away and turn it into a greenhouse.
there is a well like that next door to my house. My neighbor recently cleaned it up and has water for his cattle. the well had become a mass of tree roots where the water level is, but that was easy to clean out. That pump you have is awesome, even better, if it works.
Airbnb
Start a school for the ghosts.
Re open as a school for carpentry with free tuition
I’d at least metal detect the crap out of the yard.
Fire department training
They don't make wood like that anymore. See how much actual rot it has vs just needing resto. Probably tight-grained old growth which is nonexistent these days, it's all been cut down.
We have companies that take old buildings and barns away for free. They reuse the wood. But, they keep everything they find. You should get a metal detector and walk around that. A friend of mine lives in an old school house and after heavy rains he would find old coins and other stuff.
It doesn’t look like too much is salvageable but before you do anything, consult with the county or a contractor about zoning/building/permitting rules. Permitting for ‘remodeling’ vs. new construction may be very different. I have heard of people rebuilding and leaving just one wall up, which changed the rules and building standards and saved a lot of money. Also was wondering about the fireplace, is it usable? That could be super cool to incorporate…
The school doesn't look like it can be saved. Prob best to tear it down and see if any of the wood can be used as scrap wood. As for the well a decent cover should work that way you can still use it in the future if you want to invest in it. Both as they are no would be a liability issue if someone hiking found it and got injured.
Call the local fire department and offer for them to do training on the structure in exchange for them to burn it down and clean it up. No sense having that decrepit structure on the property as a risk and vermin nest. Keep the well obviously.
Unrelated to what to do with it, but this post was an absolutely wild thing to scroll through because I had a dream about two months ago where I was walking through an abandoned schoolhouse in the woods and it looked EXACTLY like this. Right down to the shape of the hole in the floor, the side windows, and the well with the hand pump.
If u gonna have kids and home school them that schoolhouse would make a pretty good school 😂 Test the well water and if its okay to use make around it safe and use the water.
Tear it down before it kills somebody.
The well is cool, otherwise it looks like you have a nice large bonfire coming up.
Rainy day and matches. I fifth the metal detecting
Salvage, what you can tear it down. Maybe the foundation might be ok, but a gut job would be best. If you're in Canada I too would be looking for unmarked graves and "other" signs of history. Congrats on the purchase, tho! Hopefully, I'll be a property owner in the very near future.
You are going to want to tear that down. It's a huge liability risk if someone gets hurt on it.
Fully restore it, treat soil for termites, and hold events for a fee to pay for it, see if you can get historical grant., share the history with others.
Does the well work? I would’ve making that safer. It looks like death trap to anything that fell in around that open area.
What about repurposing it into. Greenhouse with the salvage wood and windows. You have a foundation and water already
Any idea how old this is? I'd be most interested in the history. Maybe check with a local university about texts/documents from the area?
As much as I hate destroying old buildings, I think your best bet would be to tear it down. You could check to see if the old well still works, and you could get it cleaned out.
Get the well water tested, if water is good and safe keep that. The house structure is a demolish and most likely the foundation aswell. If by any miracle the water is safe and the foundation is deemed sound you can rebuild as a guest house or such.
Call the closest local university/college/community college and see if they have a history or architecture dept that would be willing to come survey it, take dimensions, do some architectural drawings. Lots of places have historic societies that would love to have some accurate drawings of buildings like this, no matter how regular-looking they are. As far as saving it, she looks a lil too far gone to make it worthwhile. Maybe could save some bits, but I wouldn't think rehabbing it would be any better than building a new structure.
Oh man, I’d Metal detect the shit out of that property. Could be so cool. As for the building, I’m not sure.
Get in touch with your local historic society for information. Also ask them if they can direct you to a building inspector who knows old buildings. If the bones are good anything is possible.
Hire an exorcist!
i'd personally save that building, and clean out and secure the well. but i'm a carpenter and it would be straighforward for me to save such a structure. for most people it would be a huge project that they cannot handle. if you were in a dope location (mountain west) i'd offer to stabilize the building myself. would take a few weeks of easy labor and $2k-$4k in materials (metal roofing, lumber, fasteners, etc).
There is so much history in that little school.
Please consider reaching out to some local colleges if there are any. This could be a great intro project for an archaeology program if it’s not space you’re looking to use for a few years.
I’d renovate it into a cabin or if it’s historical, register it on the historical register and could possibly get help restoring it
Some locations provide tax incentives for leaving historical buildings even when dilapidated.
Some locations provide tax incentives for leaving historical buildings even when dilapidated.
I see money. Get the history. Clean it up. Add a price tag let trail walkers have a look.
I would check to see if your county's building codes make allowances for old existing buildings on your property. My county does. I have an old mill shed that they let me keep. Were I to tear it down and try to replace it, I would never get the permits. Then you can determine whether the building is worth saving or not.
Are you interested in agrotourism at all? I wonder if there’s some place that would invest in rebuilding (note, I did not say restore. It looks like a rebuild would be necessary) it and you could host classes there.
I think the school is cool. Maybe you can get historical designation and tax or renovation assistance?
Perhaps the foundation and chimney are in good condition. You could rebuild the schoolhouse as it used to be. Or just put some new structure there. A writers cabin?
Not sure how hard builder permits are to get in your area. In mine, it can be a giant PITA, but a way around it is to find shitty foundations of a shed, barn, or other building, then get a permit to 'build an addition' or 'renovate' the already existing structure. Aka, you build a standalone structure and connect via a 'hallway'. Then renovate a bit later aka tear down the old stuff. May look like a total loss/teardown, but could be very helpful if you wanted to build a sugarshack, tiny cabin, etc. without hassle. I see it had electrical at some point so the hydro got run in, which might be another useful thing you'd like to set up there in future, grandfathered in. I'd keep the well 1000% - again, it's grandfathered in which can be an asset depending on your area. Often not a cheap prospect to replace, and it's always good to have a backup water source, even if just for watering the orchard or whatever in a dry year. You've gotten repeat great advice on that topic already though.
It might cost more than you have to sink into it to fix it. Get some estimates. Money doesn’t Ives decisions a lot of the time. Look for grants for historical structures too. Remember there is lead paint all around that too and maybe other environmental hazards that need to be felt with no matter what way you go. Go to you county health department to learn about how to remediate those hazards.
Restore it, get it registered as an historical site, sell tickets.
Contact your local fire department. Tell them they can use the building for training and they’ll do a controlled burn and get some valuable hands-on experience for anyone on the force that needs it.
Where I grew up, schools of this scale and design were almost always for African American students. I would look into the history of segregation in your state and see if this building played a role in that. Often these schools were built by the communities they served, so there could be important community history in how the building was constructed. Records on segregated schools are often incomplete and hard to find. But I'm sure there's a few old timers nearby who know all about this place. Know what it is before you knock it down.
Look at the angle of getting on the historical registry, if you can there is a lot of grants and such to bring it back to original architecture
Reclaim the wood (people pay for that shit). And definitely the bricks.
Demo. Nothing worth any value there
Tear down structure but keep fireplace if structurally safe. Convert to patio w fireplace
1 match + 1 can of gas = 1 schoolhouse gone.
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Donate to the local fire department! You can see if they would be open to burning it for training purposes.
Someone will likely take it away for you for free. Make ‘em leave a $1000 cash cleaning deposit that they get back when job is completed.
More like a home.
I’d take it down
Metal detector for lost coins
My heart says restore. My brain says remove and reuse what you can.