From burned out ruins to a community meetinghouse
Fairbanks is a close-knit neighborhood in

Farmington.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – The walls of the Fairbanks School Meetinghouse are going up, along with the pride of a community that is determined to save its neighborhood.

“I am just absolutely thrilled. I feel like it’s a dream come true,” said Patty Jacobs of the Fairbanks School Neighborhood Association Inc., which formed three years ago after the Fairbanks School burned to the ground.

“Initially, there were skeptics. Now, we’ve proven this is something that’s really going to get done. People are impressed,” she said

Five years after the Fairbanks School burned to the ground, the above-ground construction of the meetinghouse is under way. The building looks surprisingly similar to the schoolhouse that stood there for nearly 100 years.

Once a booming town with mills, taverns and one of the nation’s largest carriage and sleigh making shops, Fairbanks today is a close-knit neighborhood tucked in the northern corner of Farmington.

Members of the association say replacing the school with a community meeting building is a way to preserve the past and keep the community together.

“It looked forgotten after the fire,” said Mary Frank, another association member. “You want to maintain what your community looks like and feels like, and this is the way to bring some continuity. We are doing this for the sake of the neighborhood and for local pride.”

Earlier this year the basement was sealed from weather and the doors opened as the new home for the Care and Share Food Closet and also the Franklin County food distribution center. Volunteers, including Franklin County Detention Center, did the labor.

Fairbanks contractor William Lovejoy is now raising the walls, the trusses and the roof. He expects to finish by mid-September when the main floor of the building will be wrapped and sealed for winter, explained Gary LaGrange, chairman of the association’s building committee.

“It’s really going to happen,” Frank said, looking up at the frame and then at the traffic zooming by, “This, they can see.”

When finished, the Fairbanks School Meetinghouse will include two offices rented to local nonprofit agencies, the food pantry and warehouse, and a community meeting room with kitchen for up to 50 people. There will also be a museum of Fairbanks artifacts and memorabilia. The ground will be landscaped and a playground built.

It will be the only place in the neighborhood besides the church where community can gather.

Cindy Kemble, her mother and all but one of her seven siblings went to the Fairbanks School before it closed in the 1960s.

“Just seeing the building happen finally makes me think of all the things that happened there,” she said. “Oh, I am so excited about this. I was born here, raised here, went to school here, went away and then came back. It’s home.”

Finishing the building won’t come until the money does. Jacobs estimates $100,000 is needed. The association has regular fund-raisers and recently met a $4,000 matching grant from an anonymous community member. It is also seeking donations.

To become involved or make a donation, phone Patty Jacobs at 778-4272, Cindy Kemble at 778-3808 or Gary LaGrange at 778-2764.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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