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08/04/2008
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Staff photo by Joe Phelanfrom the Kennebec Journal
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The entryway will soon boast an authentic schoolhouse bench.
And on the second floor, those heading the effort to restore the schoolhouse plan to return a 1910 stage curtain -- painted to depict a Roman charioteer urging on his horses -- to its original position hanging in front of the schoolhouse stage.
Since 2006, a small group of residents here -- the North Wayne Schoolhouse Preservation Committee -- has spearheaded an effort to restore a two-story schoolhouse in the heart of the once-vibrant North Wayne Village. Though some restoration remains to be done, the group has made strides in reviving the structure.
Now, the preservation crew is preparing to show off its work to residents -- some who were students before the village school closed in 1962 -- at open-house events on Saturday and Sunday.
"We want to feature the schoolhouse as one that's more evocative of Wayne and North Wayne in its heyday," said Betsy Bowen, a preservation committee member. "We've been unearthing some fairly rich history to it."
In North Wayne's prime, the legendary North Wayne Tool Co. was at the center of village life. The company funded the construction of the schoolhouse and the nearby North Wayne Church.
More than 150 years later, the town of Wayne and a group of private funders are bankrolling the schoolhouse's restoration.
Since the preservationists began their effort in 2006, they -- and those they have recruited to help them -- have scrubbed down the windows and cleaned the wooden floors and wall panels.
They have shored up the structure's foundation, painted the interior and exterior while matching the colors as closely as possible to the original blue and white shades and repaired a sagging, waterlogged roof.
They have also fixed the second-floor stage and cleaned up the second floor's water-logged walls and ceiling.
In the course of their work, the preservation crew members learned of a 1910 stage curtain painted by local artists Laura Wells and E.L. Crosby.
Based on what they had already discovered on the schoolhouse's second floor, the expectations were low.
"Before I saw it, I thought it would be a dirty, rotten mess," preservation committee member Bob Stephenson said. "It's a totally professional job."
Bowen and Stephenson suspect the popularity of "Ben Hur" -- through the Lew Wallace novel and the later silent film and theatrical production -- was the inspiration for the colorful and vivid stage curtain oil painting.
"'Ben Hur' was kind of a 'Star Wars' of its time," Bowen said. Preservation group members have recruited the Vermont organization Stage Curtains Without Borders -- which has also assisted Gardiner, Vienna and Windsor with stage curtains of their own -- to flatten the curtain, mend some tears, apply lacquer to preserve the color and make a digital-quality copy.
"What we hope to be able to do with the fixes they put on is extend its life for another 50 years," Bowen said.
"If we're careful, we can keep it going, but we have to do it correctly."
Careful stewardship, Bowen said, means the curtain will be unrolled for display only two times each year.
"We don't want the sun to fade it," she said, "so we have to keep it rolled up."
The semiannual curtain unveilings may coincide with town functions at the schoolhouse.
"The plan is to make it a place where people will come and it will bring people back to a different time," Bowen said. "Some may call it a simpler time."
Bob McLaughlin, who was a schoolhouse student, recalls a time when the second floor was reserved for special occasions: spring plays, Christmas pageants and spelling bees.
"I remember standing up here spelling," McLaughlin said, looking at the second-story stage.
Bowen, who loves the thrill of competitive spelling, said she is eager to see the schoolhouse once again host the spelling matches.
"That way," she joked, "people could view spelling as an extreme sport."
Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435
mstone@centralmaine.com
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