One-room schoolhouse to be moved, restored

Eileen Adams/Sun Journal

Andy Freeman of K & K Excavators stands next to the new site for the Gilead schoolhouse on Route 2. The next building over is the town office, and the third building is the town hall.

- Eileen M. Adams/Sun Journal
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Hugh and Lin Chapman clean up around the Gilead schoolhouse, which will be moved on Aug. 20. The new section of Route 2 will go right through the building's current location. Preliminary roadwork can be seen in the distance between the building and the tree.

- Eileen M. Adams/Sun Journal
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Nearly five decades ago, the last of six one-room schoolhouses in Gilead closed. Then it served as a library and convenience store before becoming vacant a few years ago.

Now, thanks to the hardworking efforts of the Gilead Historical Society and a highway project by the Maine Department of Transportation, the wood-framed, one-story building will be moved .3 mile east and set on a foundation next to the town office. It now stands in the path of the new highway.

The 25- by 33-foot schoolhouse is one of just four or five historic buildings remaining in the town of 156 people on the New Hampshire border. The schoolhouse was built in 1903, the town office in the late 1800s and the adjacent town hall in 1883. All three will be lined up behind the railroad tracks that run through town. A fourth historic building, the former stage stop known as the Peabody Tavern, c. 1800 and now an antique shop, is a few miles east. A few 19th-century farmhouses also dot the rural landscape.

Lin and Hugh Chapman, members of the historical society that was formed during the town's bicentennial in 2004, along with an active group of about 15 other members, have worked to save the schoolhouse for more than a year.

“We knew the building was going to be destroyed or moved,” said Hugh Chapman, who with fellow historical society member Howard Reiche Jr., or Chapman's wife, Lin, has written four books of Gilead history.

The group worked with the Maine Historic Preservation Commission to get it placed on the national register, and with the MDOT, who have agreed to move the building.

The lot on which it will sit was where Lin grew up. The farmhouse was razed last year, and the property deeded to the society. The schoolhouse, which will become the new home of the historical society and town artifacts, will likely be dedicated to Lin's mother, Mildred McLain. Lin was a student at the one-room school from kindergarten through grade six.

“The thought of it not being saved was unbearable,” she said. “We are doing this to preserve the history of Gilead.”

She remembers that water froze during the winter and that youngsters used outhouses. She also remembers some of the good things, such as learning grade material ahead of her age because six grades were taught in that one room.

Over the years, the town has lost its churches, stores and other structures, making those that are left even more important to preserve.

The historical society will assume responsibility for the upkeep of the building. The group is currently working on grants that, if successful, will help restore the schoolhouse to its original appearance.

The schoolhouse move is the latest step townspeople have taken to revitalize the small town. Last year, the town office was moved out of a residential home and into a former restored store building.

Hugh said the society and the town will likely celebrate the schoolhouse during the annual Family and Friends Day in June 2010.

eadams@sunjournal.com