If there were to be a contest to locate the oldest documented frame building in Lucas County, this modest structure --- Puckerbrush (aka Pleasant Ridge, Ottercreek No. 3, even Cackler Hall) School --- would be among the contenders.
Completed in Ottercreek Township in time to welcome its first scholars during the fall of 1874, its final fling at the original location was during the spring of 1963 as consolidation was winding down in Lucas County. The Lucas County Historical Society purchased it for a dollar during 1968 and moved it into Chariton.
The building will get a fresh coat of white paint this spring as well as a new front door (that will look so far as possible just like the current door, not original and badly deteriorated after too many winters of exposure to Iowa weather).
I got to wondering yesterday while walking around the museum campus how many times the school's original cost had been expended in keeping the old building upright. Actually, I could come close to figuring that out, at least for recent years, if I had the patience to go through financial records, but don't.
It got a new cedar shake roof in 2012, the first in 44 years. Soon thereafter, the building was emptied, the floor taken up and its support structure repaired. Then the hardwood floor installed in 1941 was put back down. More recently, deteriorated siding and trim around the lower part of the building was replaced (some of it had to be especially milled to match) and the entry repaired. Now fresh paint and a new door.
If it isn't one thing, it's another. But all part of the process when you take on the care and feeding of a vintage structure.
Also this spring, exactly when contingent on weather, we'll begin construction of a handicap accessible walkway behind the school, pioneer cabin and barn, then along the hillside, to the Bill Marner Blacksmith Shop, completed in 2011. The current path to the blacksmith shop will be improved, too --- but it is unsuitable for use by anyone who has trouble getting around.
We want spring rain, but would appreciate it if there could be a dry spell to allow all this work to proceed.
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