A special council meeting that will highlight the progress in restoring the structures at the Schenck Farm site off Southfield Road has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 19, at 7 p.m.##M:[more]##
During the meeting, township staff will also present several concept plans for the rest of the work to be done at the site, and are hoping to get input from both the public and council members.
According to Sam Surtees, the township’s land use division manager, there are various options regarding what to do with the layout of the site, including the staff’s preferred plan, which will cover a variety of issues. One issue deals with the restoration of the old school house on site, and whether it should be located where the existing foundation is located, or whether it should be moved elsewhere.
Another issue deals with the handicapped access. While township officials are hoping to keep the appearance and functionality of the site as close as possible to its origins — the structures on site date from approximately the 1740s to the early 1900s — the township also has to meet its access obligations, Surtees says.
Decisions on where the bus drop-offs for school children touring the site and the location of restrooms on the site will also hopefully come during the meeting.
The restoration of the structures on site has been ongoing this year. The three structures on site — the Dutch-English barn, the carriage/wagon house, and the school house — complement the main house, which now serves as the historical society’s home. Restoration on that house was completed around 1993, and the rest of the project has already spanned about a decade.
Last fall council discussions centered around whether the council should spend money to fully restore the unstable wagon/carriage house, built around 1910, or leave it alone while officials try to find a similar structure to replace it. The council ultimately gave township staff a year to try to find a replica carriage house from surrounding area farms that date back to that era. However, “we haven’t been able to find an appropriate replica carriage house,” Surtees says. “We will probably end up replicating it with a new facility” that is very similar in structure to what would have been in place on site during that time. The council did spend money to “winterize” the structure and keep the public from entering the dilapidated building.
Other progress has been made on the shed portion of the barn, which “has been completely restored,” Surtees says, adding that electricity connections and fire codes have been met. The concrete floor was poured, the ramps to the building have been completed, and the doors were put on, he added.
The August 19 meeting will take place in the barn on site. The township has a temporary certificate of occupancy to allow members of the public to attend, Surtees said.
The barn had been reassembled with a new foundation. The whole barn — the original parts of which were built in the 1740s — was dissembled, the old foundation was ripped out, new foundation was put in, and the old timbers were refurbished and restored. The barn also received new siding and a new roof.
With regard to the school house, which dates back to the Civil War era, there had been some discussion about creating a replica, which possibly includes bringing a trailer on site, dismantling it, and using about 40 percent of the original material to reassemble it. About a decade ago, the school house was relocated to the site from its original location at the Maurice Hawk school on Clarksville Road. A foundation was quickly put in, but it didn’t resemble what a school house from that era would have looked like, and the roof of the building was also placed improperly, causing leaks. No money was put into the capital budget to fix it, and the schoolhouse just sat there for years.
