Back to School - Restoring a schoolhouse was elementary for ths educated couple
SO Rhode Island, April 2010 by Andrea E. McHugh, Contributing Writer
MATUNUCK - “I think it’s the kind of place that wouldn’t appeal to everybody,” smiles Kristin Schwab, looking around the reclaimed schoolhouse-cum-home she bought with her husband Richard late last summer. The family decided to move on from a Narragansett beach house they shared with another family for more than four years to find a place of their own, and found themselves touring slightly cramped one and two bedroom pieds-a-terre at the top of their budget. As South County real estate turned to a buyers market more options became available, but the Schwabs hadn’t really considered looking outside Narragansett until their real estate agent, Deb Wilson at Lila Delman, came across an unusual property she thought just might be kismet. Kristin, a landscape architect and professor of landscape architecture, and Richard, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Educational Leadership and the Executive Director of the Institute for Urban School Improvement, both a t the University of Connecticut, walked into the old Matunuck Schoolhouse. Appropriately on Matunuck Schoolhouse Road, and knew they had uncovered something truly exquisite.
“We just loved the tall ceilings and the original floors,” says Kristin. “Look you can see where the original desks were screwed in,” Richard adds excitedly, pointing to the congruent rows of indented circles throughout. While the property was originally listed near the million dollar mark, it eventually fell to nearly half that, sliding it into the Schwab’s price range; they quickly made an offer.
Built in 1904, the schoolhouse was the talk of the town when it opened its doors consolidating the Matunuck and Perryville school districts. Historical records describe the building at its dedication as, “a modified Colonial style of architecture and faces the south…divided into two schoolrooms.” Boasting about the school’s state-of-the-art amenities, the record notes, “Each schoolroom is fitted with 35 Chandler adjustable desks finished in cherry. In both rooms, the desks face north. The lighting is perfect, three large windows on the south and five on the east and west ends. This gives all light from the rear and side in each room which is in accord with the best ideas in schoolhouse lighting today.” It cost $3700.00 to build, quite a sum in its day, with the total appropriation (architect, heating, cistern and blackboards) totaling $4,500.00 plus the $150.00 paid to Mr. Weeden who owned the farmland Kenyon L. Butterfield, president of the State Agricultural College in Kingston at the time (which would later become the University of Rhode Island), gave a speech at the schoolhouse’s dedication, calling it, “the best rural schoolhouse I have ever seen.”
As it likely drew oohs and ahhs form the pupils’ parents, the light is what captivated the Schwabs in this century as well, who added a window in the kitchen, which was once the first grade classroom. Celebrating its past, the Schwabs continue to pursue décor, in no rush, that toasts the home’s past. In the dining space, a pair of antique brass, solid cast aluminum pendant lights with maritime flair illuminates the distressed farm table. The table, crafted by hand by Richard’s father, a carpenter, dates back to the 1960s. Richard explains that his father made the table, and one for each of his siblings, from what was once the hayloft of his grandmother’s barn. In the late 1800s, Richard explains, the chestnut blight killed all the chestnut tress, so people cut the trees up into planks to be of use. “That was one of my bachelor things that when I got married, it was coming no matter what,” he laughs. “It was the one good thing that he had,” Kristin teases. “There were a lot of other good things that just didn’t make the cut, but that was staying,” Richard jokes.
Turning to area craftsmen to fine tune the place and make minor adjustments, the couple learned their home was a sentimental address for many in the community. Says Richard, “The guy we had come in to put in the lights, Johnny Mac—I love local, we always try to hire local guys—he said, ‘Oh my God, this was the first grade; I went to school here!’ And then he had all these stories and remembered Yogi’s mom was the lunch lady!” Yogi is the Schwab’s neighbor, and in an “Only in Rhode Island” happenstance, his mother was in the fact the school’s lunch lady—meaning she spent her days in what is now the Schwab’s basement.
Others may be hesitant at the idea of living in an old schoolhouse, but Richard says he is not surprised the structure’s past seemed like home to him from the time he laid eyes on it, “Growing up, I lived across the street from an old schoolhouse, whish is where Chris Dodd lives,” he says, referring to the Connecticut senator who now resides in the converted schoolhouse in East Haddam. “So it’s my life’s work—education and public schools mean a lot to me.”
What was once the school’s lobby is now the home’s foyer, adorned with an antique desk and nearly century-old books. The former principal’s office is now a bathroom suite, and around the corner, a supersized classroom has been converted into two ample bedrooms with sky-high ceilings and, much to Kristin’s delight, generous closet space. As you descend downstairs, where it is evident the stairwell was added in later years, rows of three-hole indentations remain and it’s easy to imagine the school children’s coats hanging neatly from the bead-boarded wall. What was once a cafeteria, designated for what the dedication described as “intended for stormy day play and exercise rooms,” is now a cool basement with grandiose plans.
“We’re going to put the ping pong table here, and the darts, and we’re going to put the bar here and get a big screen and this will be the fun room,” Richard says with gusto. “And then when we want to put some sort of access from the upper floor, maybe a spiral staircase,” adds Kristin. “I’d call it the man cave but Kristin doesn’t like—“explains Richard, until Kristin interjects, “No, I don’t like that name,” They both laugh and toss around compromise names, agreeing that whatever it is called, the family, including their college-age children, will enjoy spending time together there. In a smaller vestibule attached to the former cafeteria, the couple has begun to restore what were once the separate gender lavatories. “We’re going to bring it back, put on the doors ‘Boys’ and ‘Girls’ and try and get that frosted glass,” says Richard, who is contemplating adding a claw-foot tub in each.
Needless to say, Kristin, the resident landscape architect and co-author of the recently released Sustainable Site Design: Criteria, Process and Case Studies for Integrating Site and Region in Landscape Design, is plotting her plan for the vast backyard which neighbors farmland and land protected by the South Kingstown Land Trust. “We’re going to do a meadow and a lawn that will go well with the conservation theme,” she says, adding that she will screen in the existing shed so friends and family can enjoy the backyard. “And I can have my cigars with my buddies way out there, with the wild turkeys and coyotes,” laughs Richard. (Of course, he’s not kidding about the wildlife, both of which are prevalent in the area.)
With an attached studio space, a renter lives there year round, but the Schwabs say they already retreat to their schoolhouse as much as possible and have enjoyed nestling into the community. Soon enough, they say, they’ll be indulging in their spring fever with cocktails at the Ocean Mist and dining at their favorite local spot, the Matunuck Oyster Bar. “The more we talk to people and get to know folks, there is just a nice community of people here,” says Richard “I just love them.” Welcome neighbor.
Providence Journal, April 25, 2010 by Christine Dunn, Journal Staff Writer |
