LOWER LAKE >> Bake sales generally have modest goals — a new item for a church youth group, for example. So it may seem surprising that bake sales and yard sales were in part responsible for preserving the Lower Lake Historical Schoolhouse Museum. It may be even more surprising that four settled individuals in their 70s had the audacity to think small hoping for large rewards.
Jane and John Weaver, Leslie Parker and John Malley began the Historical School Preservation Committee in 1986, in an attempt to keep the old schoolhouse around, which was slated at the time for demolition. “It was totally a grassroots effort by a group of citizens who wanted to save it,” said Linda Lake, curator of the museum. “They just did not want to see it torn down.”
In order to save the building, the four committee members put in an impressive amount of effort. “They worked 4 days a week, 8 hours a day,” said Lake.
The schoolhouse has been around since 1877 and it educated young minds until its closure in 1935, when it was sold to the Masonic Lodge. In the 1960s, the lodge traded the building for some county land off of Highway 53. The building has been in the county”s possession ever since.
Preservation work officially began on January 2, 1992 when, according to “The Schoolhouse Story” on the Lake County website, some unwelcome guests had to be evicted from their home. “Over 350 pigeons were removed as the first order of business.”
Since the building belongs to the county, the Preservation Committee no longer has to fret over keeping the museum running — and pigeon-free. “We have a county budget and paid staff and we have an operational budget. So we don”t have to worry too much about having to continually fundraise to keep it open because the county budget pays most of the operational expenses,” explained Lake.
However, sometimes projects crop up that the county simply cannot afford and that”s when the Preservation Committee steps in. “Then [we] help the county with projects that can”t be budgeted through the county,” Lake said. One recent project that the county couldn”t undertake was a fire detection system, so the committee took it upon themselves to install the important system.
People who stop by the Lower Lake Historical Schoolhouse Museum can see a variety of items such as early pioneer artifacts, rocks and minerals from Lake County and Native American items like arrow points. And of course there”s the schoolhouse, a Victorian parlor and a working player piano on display for the public.
The auditorium doesn”t hold performances for the public very often, as the theater company that previously used the museum moved to another location. The museum is also short on staff, making performances difficult to run. “This year several of our staff members left and we”re just in the process of filling up those positions again,” said Lake. “We have to be at full staff in order to staff events.” But the Preservation Committee seems hopeful for future events. They are currently working on new infrastructure for a lighting system.
The museum is more than just a building, it”s a space to learn about the history of the county and a place that protects the very important past. “Besides preserving the local history and history of local families, it”s an educational center and also a cultural center for the community, because of the theater and the auditorium,” explained Lake. “How can you not want to keep the history and the culture of the town and how it evolved?”
The team behind its preservation was dedicated to that question. Just one year after the work began, the Preservation Committee completed the first floor of the building. On October 21, 1993, the committee held a formal dedication ceremony and opened the building to the public the next day.
Next, they began work on the second floor, which featured a large auditorium complete with a stage for productions. Once they meticulously removed hundreds of wooden boards across the ceiling of the entire auditorium, sheetrock and insulation had to be put down, after which the boards were replaced in the exact order they had been removed. The stage was redone, paint, carpeting and rewiring spruced up the place and a dressing room was constructed in the old bell tower. They completed those renovations in only one year as well and the committee named the room The Weaver Auditorium, after Jane and John Weaver.
But this wasn”t the end of improvements to the building. An elevator and a two-story side building were added to the original structure. The side building provided storage downstairs and meant that there would be a bathroom upstairs, an important improvement as the auditorium was used for public events such as plays and concerts.
In 2006, the restoration of the bell tower became a high priority. “That was actually a dream of Kelly Cox, a former county administrator,” said Lake. “He really participated in the restoration of the building and he physically did some work on the upstairs.”
Cox felt that the schoolhouse was of great importance to the community and the bell tower would help make it that much more worthwhile. “He just thought that the value of the building would be enhanced,” Lake said. “He was the one who found the funds in order to restore the bell tower.”
Finishing projects in a year seems to be a trend for the Preservation Committee. A ceremony of completion for the bell tower was held on September 13, 2007.
The schoolhouse isn”t the only building in Lower Lake worth preserving. “We have several very historic buildings in downtown Lower Lake including the Methodist Church ? It”s extremely important to save the architecture and the culture of the early days of the town,” Lake stressed.
And sometimes it takes a few bake sales — and some hard working volunteers — to help make the point.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
