Student Takes His Skills on a Trip

Karl, historic preservation graduate student, joined April and two undergraduate students to the Surprise Schoolhouse to help with construction and preservation of the building. Combining his knowledge of preservation and his want for real world experience Karl explains what he did that day.

“The Surprise schoolhouse is a one-room school built approximately 1910 that served the area around Turner’s Mill on the Eleven point river. A flood in the past year moved the schoolhouse of its foundation and the Historiccorps was asked to move the house as close as possible to the last location (the building was moved sometime between 1925-1930) and build a new foundation to make the schoolhouse structurally safe as it has cultural value as the descendants of the school reside in the area.

We provided extra labor to perform construction of the stone pillar foundations. To accomplish this the Historic Preservation students mixed mortar and installed the original stones into new piers. We also took turns working shovels to backfill around the pillars that were already completed. It was hard and dirty work, but fulfilling as we could see that our labor would result in maintaining the material culture of the region, and would allow for future restorative work. It was an educational experience, and very hands-on.  It is one thing to read about old buildings, but it is an entirely different situation to have boots on the ground and see the old building methods in person.

Before we departed the site, we did take a side trip to see the remains of Turner’s mill, which consists of a stone foundation, and a large iron water wheel sitting in the creekbed. The village remains were not visible due to the plant growth, and the spotting of poison ivy discouraged roaming around the woods looking for them. “