I thought it might be fun to post some of our progress with the studio & a little background about this building each week.
The five people standing in the doorway you wonder...
well they are my Great Aunts & Uncles that actually went to school in this building. The Boniface's had 12 children, 5 are in this picture (Rhoda, Dick, Lil, Mary & Helen), 1 doesn't live in the area (Barbara) & if I am correct 5 have died, most of old age (Ted, Tom, Bob, Ruth & John), my Grandfather included :( (whom we all miss daily) & 1 at birth. (I am sure I will be corrected by one of the family historians, but that is the way I heard it) The guy in the back, he is my grandfather's twin brother but they didn't look alike in my opinion. Yes, this building was a church, est. 1859, Pleasant Valley Methodist Church,for some time, with a one room school house which is across the street & still standing today, but when they had too many children to fit there (especially if 1 family could have 11 children in school at one time), they moved into the church where they are standing. My Aunt Rhoda & Uncle Dick have told me the funniest stories of the things they did during their school days, & they crack me up. Stay tuned for some of those stories in future blogs. They all walked to school everyday. It is a little over a mile from their farm & of course I know that even when it snowed, they walked to school. They might have told me it was uphill both ways, but since I live on that road, it was mostly downhill on their way to school & uphill the whole way back. I also know they were poor, so they walked barefoot, unless they were lucky enough to find some old shoes that fit. Since we have been working in the church, we realized that without insulation, they most have froze their butts off during the winter in there trying to learn. Even with a wood stove going, I could see my breath standing only 4 ft away from it. My Aunt Rhoda thinks that is why they are so hearty & have all lived so long. From what we can tell, sometime in the 50's the school was closed & all the children were sent to Pine Bush Cental School District in Pine Bush, NY which my father & his 5 sisters & brothers went too - 1st-12th grade, my mother arrived there when she was in 8th grade & by the time I went there it was our middle school 6th-9th Grade. Now my daughter goes there 6th - 8th & my youngest will be attending in 2 years. Wow, it seems like we love the area. If you came across a normal holiday event you would run & hide rather then trying to learn all of our names.
The pictures I included were from the fall. That is what it looked like when we started. A mess, to say the least! It was converted into a summer home in the 70's(which we found on newspapers stuffed into the walls making a bedroom, bathroom & kitchen that we ripped out). The couple vacationing there eventually moved into a different house down the street, probably because they would freeze their butts off on cold nights in that place too. They are still alive, so maybe hanging out there will give us longevity too. Stay tuned for close-up photos of each person in that photo & stories about what they did to get out of school early...
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