Group keeps Pleasantview restoration dream alive

POST FALLS – Pleasantview School in Post Falls was built in 1910, almost a century ago. It was a country schoolhouse, an impressive brick and stucco building, with the traditional belfry complete with a bell for the teacher to ring and summon the kids for the start of the school day or to return from recess. In 1937, the Pleasantview School consolidated with Post Falls School and the kids left the two-classroom schoolhouse and were bused to town. The old school sat vacant and nearly forgotten for close to 40 years, with the exception of bats, mice and curious kids.

“One of the things that did happen during those years is that the 4-H in the area met here, and during the war, ladies’ clubs met here,” said Elaine White, vice president of the Pleasantview Community Association. “We have no real understanding of how the key got passed around. In 1972 one of the neighbors, Glen Madison, formed a corporation and went to the school board and asked what they were going to do with it.”

The PCA had a dream of restoring the building so it could be used by the town once again. The school board had no plans or ideas concerning the aging structure, which was rapidly falling into disrepair. They eagerly quit-claimed it to the association with the stipulation that it be used as a community center or be returned to the Post Falls School District. Apparently, they weren’t in too big a hurry to have the white elephant back in their clutches.

“The old bell was missing from the belfry,” said Bob Ickes, president of the PCA.

One of the members of the association remembered that the bell had been taken to the high school many years before to be used to ring in touchdowns at football games. No one was sure how to go about asking for the bell back. Ickes, a former school board member, went to the school and with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, told several members of the board that the PCA couldn’t restore the school without the original bell and without it they’d have to give the old school back.

“They said, ‘No, no! We’ll get your bell. We don’t want the school back. We’ll get the kids a new bell if they need it,’ ” laughed Ickes. Good sports, the school board found the bell and loaned the PCA a trailer to haul it with.

How did the 800-pound steel bell manage to get out of the belfry in the first place?

Rumor has it, the student body president of the senior class at Post Falls School, along with several others, decided they needed the old bell to ring in the home team touchdowns. They snuck over to the abandoned schoolhouse and climbed into the belfry with the full intentions of swiping the bell. Upon closer inspection of the bell, which appeared much larger face-to-face, the idealistic 17-year-old boys realized they could never lift it, let alone get it to the Post Falls School. They abandoned their stealth operation and asked one of the boys’ father for help. A crane was used to legally take the bell from the school and for many years hundreds of touchdowns were cheered by excited fans along with the loud ringing of the bell.

Members of the PCA, helpful neighbors and many area businesses have donated time and money to help restore the old school. The rafters and support beams were strengthened or rebuilt and a new roof put on. The front steps were torn down and redone to match a picture taken of the very first day of school in 1910 of all the students standing in front. At one point they entered and found the piano had fallen through the floor of the stage due to rot, and they knew the next repair job was mapped out for them.

The new stage was redone to resemble the original and a used piano was donated that will never fall through the floor. There is still much to do; replacing windows, flooring, fixing huge cracks in the walls, and much more.

To earn money the PCA holds fundraisers and applies for grants. The federal grants and those from the State Historical Preservation and Idaho Heritage Trust match up to a certain amount what the association can raise in funds. The amount of work that gets done depends on the amount of funds and donations of time, money or products they receive.