Dedication and open house slated for 1883 Ridge Valley schoolhouse restoration in West Rockhill – The Reporter

WEST ROCKHILL Some things have changed since the Ridge Valley schoolhouse was built in 1883.

Nowadays, following a restoration project completed last summer, a robotic vacuum does the cleaning, there are new heating, cooling and dehumidifying systems, and storm windows have been added. Other things havent changed, such as the original paint scheme and window shutters. While not original to the building, enlarged and framed photos hanging on the walls show what life was like when it was a school.

A service of dedication and open house to celebrate the restoration will be held Sunday, May 1 at the schoolhouse and Ridge Valley United Church of Christ, which are both on the same property at 905 Allentown Road, Sellersville. The church service of dedication begins at 9:30 a.m. The open house at the school will be 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The school closed in the 1930s, after which the building became the Guenst family home until 1986, when the church bought it, initially using it for meetings and Sunday School, then for storage, said Joyce Justice, a Ridge Valley UCC member and West Rockhill Historical Societys program coordinator.

In recent years, the building had fallen into disrepair, she said.

An anonymous donation helped fund the restoration, which was completed with the help of a lot of volunteers and donations of materials, she said.

People just really stepped up to help us, she said.

We tried to preserve as much of the building as we could, Justice said. We wanted to preserve the flavor of it as what it was. It was a schoolhouse.

Along with photos from the days when it was a school, the 1900 diploma of Ridge Valley UCC and West Rockhill Historical Society member Trent Yerks grandmother is displayed at the school, Justice said. Yerk will present a talk on the restoration project at the West Rockhill Historical Societys June 13 meeting, including showing a video of the work. The video will also be shown during the May 1 dedication.

One of the photos of earlier days at the school shows when it had an outhouse on the front porch, Justice said.

Not very nice to think about, but it was the way it was back then, she said.

The Guenst family provided oil paintings now hanging in the school, she said.

Charlie Guenst, who died in December of 2020, visited often during the restoration, along with bringing his back loader to help move stone, she said.

It meant a lot to him because that was where he grew up, Justice said.

The Spring 2022 West Rockhill Township newsletter includes information from the West Rockhill Historical Society about the restoration project, for which discussion began in 2018 and work started in August of 2020.

The volunteers began by removing the old floor and supporting beams, the 1930 dropped ceiling and the original 1883 ceiling, thus exposing the roof rafters. They then removed and refurbished all the old windows, added new storm windows, and removed/repainted the original shutters. Church members replaced a cupola where an original bell tower had been in place since the 1930s. The entire exterior was painted with original colors including dark green accents, a robins egg blue porch ceiling and white plaster, the information said. After restoring the interior ceiling to its original school house height, it was also painted its original color of blue. Beautiful period schoolhouse lighting was sponsored by members of the Church. The main entrance with a new door was reoriented to face the Church parking lot.

The work also included adding a handicap restroom and two small meeting rooms in addition to the main meeting room.

The West Rockhill Historical Society will have a table at the schoolhouse open house to raise funds for an application to put Ridge Valley UCC on the National Register of Historic Places, Historical Society information said. The Society is still in the early stages of looking into the application, Justice said. If approved, it would be the second West Rockhill property on the Register. The first is Highland Park, which was approved in 2017.

Justice said back before there were any restoration plans, she planted flowers alongside the building and wished that there were a way to fix up the schoolhouse.

Our prayers were answered and we got the help that we needed to get started, and so weve been able to save it and its a wonderful little facility now, she said.

The church uses it and it is available for community use, she said. Tai chi classes are held there each week, she said.

We want it to be used, Justice said. Its meant to be used and appreciated.

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Dedication and open house slated for 1883 Ridge Valley schoolhouse restoration in West Rockhill - The Reporter