Restoration of Goodrich Schoolhouse
The Goodrich School, ten miles southwest of Council on the Weiser River, is a one room country school where local students were taught from 1911 until 1956. Since its closure, it has often been used as a place for community gatherings and has been owned by a number of different people.
The last owner, Kenneth Cederstrand, a developer from Washington State, generously donated the school and the 0.8 acres surrounding it, to the Friends of the Goodrich School (FSG), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization formed three years ago, whose mission is to restore the school, preserve its history, and allow the schoolhouse to once again be used as a gathering place.
Former U.S. Senator Larry Craig was but one of the students who attended the Goodrich School. According to his sister, Council resident Sally Summers, she too attended the school during grades one through four. But when her mom, Dorothy Craig (who taught the older students at the school) took a job teaching in Indian Valley, Summers went with her. There were various teachers at the school that typically had a teacher for students in grades one through four and another teacher for students in grades five through nine.
Summers was one of eight students who attended the school during the time she was there, and she was the only girl. Summers is 80 now and has clear memories of attending school there.
Gary Gallant, who lives in Goodrich, attended the school from 1949 through 1955. He said he believes others who attended the school are still alive, but no longer living in the Council area.
Kathryn Hughes and her husband Paul have owned property in the Goodrich area since 2005 and remember first seeing the building twenty years ago.
“The books were still in shelves along the wall; there was a 48-star flag, and the original school bell was in the bell tower. Most of the items were removed by previous owners, but we hope to get some original items like the flag and the bell back into the building,” she said.
The group hopes to expand their membership and is working on raising funds to restore the building.
“We were awarded a $5,000 grant from the Idaho Heritage Trust, which is a 100% matching grant. We need to come up with $5,000 in matching funds in order to use the full amount,” she said.
The restoration will be a phased effort over the next few years, starting this year with an architectural survey and the creation of blueprints and plans for the project. Next, they will be replacing the foundation, then the roof, and then repairing the external walls before restoring the interior. This will require fundraising and the writing of grant applications by FGS.
So far, the group has raised $2,000 of the needed match for this year. They have also received $1,000 from the Country School House Association, which they have used to grade around the building to keep water away from the fragile foundation and to hire a beekeeper to safely remove the two large bee colonies which he believed had lived in the schoolhouse walls for over sixty years. The Goodrich bees he rescued were moved into other colonies that he has in Washington and Ada Counties.
FGS also received $850 in donations this spring from the Idaho Gives Campaign, a statewide, weeklong fundraiser for nonprofit organizations around the state.
The group hopes to not only make the school a gathering place for the neighborhood but also plans to have wi-fi available to cyclists, riders, and runners who use the Weiser River Trail to stop and rest and learn about the building’s history. They also plan to re-drill the well, so that those visitors can get water for themselves and for their horses.
Anyone who might have more information or pictures of the school, or who has relatives still alive that attended the school who may want to have their stories preserved is asked to contact Kathy Hughes at FOGSchoolhouse@gmail.com or to call (810) 516-4028. FGS also welcomes anyone interested in volunteering or donating to the not profit group to help preserve this unique building and its history.
