Community renovates old school

KALISPELL, Mont. – When Whitney Giddeon listens to her father talk about bygone days at the one-room LaSalle School, she closes her eyes and imagines how it used to be.

Wooden desks carefully aligned, an old wood stove taking the chill off the spartan room, the schoolmarm dutifully doling out long division problems.

Memories of the century-old school have taken many forms over the years as its use changed to a community center in recent decades. Neighbors are quietly making sure the building will be around to create memories for future generations.

Located at the corner of Helena Flats and Pioneer roads, LaSalle School was used as a community center for nearly 30 years after it closed, until it fell to disrepair and vandalism in the late 1980s.

Giddeon’s father, Neil Graham, attended school there; so did her grandfather, Byron Graham, and many uncles and cousins before the school district permanently closed in 1961. She attended meetings of the Country Cousins 4-H Club at the old schoolhouse, and remembers harvest dinners, spring picnics with softball games and Halloween and Christmas parties there. Her memories shaped a soft spot for the building.

About 10 years ago, Giddeon had a revelation.

“I was coming home, and I saw the back door of the school was open,” she recalled. “I stopped and went inside. All the windows were broken, there was no electricity.”

In a corner of the empty room, she saw an old curtain rod with burned paper wadded on one end of it. It had been used as a makeshift torch by a trespasser.

“I remember looking at it and thinking, ‘This is how close we came to this place being gone,’ ” she said.

The torch sparked action in Giddeon. She immediately phoned her dad and asked what it would take to get the school fixed up. He told her she would need to first contact the owners of the property, Arden and Lauretta Olsen.

At the time, Arden, another LaSalle School alumnus, was ill with cancer, but gave Giddeon his blessing to spearhead the renovation. He died a couple of years later. The first big project was putting a new roof on the building last spring.

Giddeon was heartened by the generosity she found. Mark Sonju of Rainmaster Seamless Metal Products donated his and his crew’s time to the project and persuaded Custom Bilt Metals of Washington to donate about $9,000 worth of materials. It was a tedious project that involved peeling off two layers of rotting cedar shakes.

Western Building Center contributed paint for the exterior and Midway Rental donated the use of equipment.

Neighbors and others with ties to the school have chipped in money for various smaller projects, such as replacing the broken windows. Up next is the restoration of the original decorative pressed-tin ceiling.

“We have to have it soda-blasted,” Giddeon said. “The tin is so thin that the paint peeling off it is thicker than the tin.”

LaSalle School boosters have gone to great lengths to preserve the building. The original school bell was stolen in the 1970s, but it was replaced not long ago after Lauretta Olsen searched the Internet and found a replica on eBay. It’s not quite as big as the original, but rings loud and clear for special occasions.

Russ Conn of Columbia Falls, whose mother, Marie Conn, was the last teacher at LaSalle School, has promised to refurbish the maple floor once the rest of the building is renovated. He also has done cabinet work at the school and helped with other projects. The school is equipped with restrooms and a small kitchen and storage room that once served as the teacherage.

Marie Conn taught at the school from 1938 to 1940, and again for the 1960-61 school year. She enrolled Russ at LaSalle for the last half of the ‘60-‘61 year to give him some “personal guidance.”

“She was concerned I wasn’t doing so well in (Whitefish) school, so she took me with her the second half of that year,” he said.

But it wasn’t the academics he reminisced about.

“We built forts at recess and roller-skated in the basement,” he said. “Those were things you didn’t do at other schools.”

LaSalle School District was created on Sept. 15, 1904. The school, originally located where Glacier Park International Airport now exists, was moved to its current spot in 1942 and a basement was added.

The earliest attendance records start with the 1913 school year, but it’s likely the school operated prior to that. Thanks to the research of Giddeon’s uncle, Larry Graham, she has copies of all of the handwritten class rosters beginning with 1913.

Kalispell School District 5 and eventually Columbia Falls School District 6 held classes at the school until 1961. At that point, the Columbia Falls district gave the school to LaSalle-area residents for use as a community center.

Today, the Badrock Riders 4-H Club holds meetings there and the school is used for neighborhood get-togethers.

“The ultimate goal is to have it like LaSalle Grange Hall, for any number of functions,” Giddeon said. “It’s worth fixing. There’s not a whole lot wrong with it.”

Neighbors have established a nonprofit corporation to raise money for further renovation. A board of directors is in the process of organizing. Giddeon has contemplated organizing a reunion for LaSalle School alumni, but that will take a back burner while the renovation continues.

As she talks about the LaSalle landmark, the memories flood back.

“I can remember running from one end of the building to the other in those patent leather shoes we all wore as little girls, just to hear how loud we could be. I don’t know how our parents could stand the noise,” she said about bygone holiday parties.

“There are a lot of great memories here.”