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<br /> 4 M , 1$ � F' r '4 •- »- Y,. , , The old Hickory Grove it I School
<br /> � � a `� ^ 3 ¢ , -° . { ti 1'' . . house has been a home for the
<br /> A It IF I ?<< - : ' FIX�' "i<! N : r ' past 20 years, but pefore that it
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<br /> . :l, , ri: r ,{ , �< .., ,•a; was a night club and a da -care .
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<br /> 11 IF1', t''''�' ` '� �,/": 7�: ,;g,,'7�y}(��',,J.i. �`�e:? '" - � �;, : '<' ''�' I £ center, and twice it was a church.
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<br /> ' All :% fF IF . :;��� s�! , ,, ;;':,; ; ' = .u+ :. .. • .. . Owners Natalie and Gary Boorman
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<br /> ' building back
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<br /> in o oveSince taking over ownership of the turn-of-the"
<br /> century schoolhouse in April 1998 , the Boormans
<br /> have been painting the outside wood, trying to
<br /> keep it in good condition. '
<br /> BY PATRICK O ' NEItt. estate agent showed her the school that sits on a trying to get around that stove to get warm."
<br /> Correspondent two-acre lot. Within a week, she showed the place to Growing upon a nearby farm, Burnette and many
<br /> Gary, and they made an offer that was accepted, of her nine sisters and brothers attended Hickory
<br /> CHAPEL HILL — Vivian Burnette remembers the getting the school for $109,000 , Grove School: Despite the challenges of segregated .
<br /> joy of opening the door: to her classroom' on winter "I think it was a pretty good bargain," she said. gducation, Burnette' said the 'families took pride 1I
<br /> mornings and crowding with' Tier classmates around Viviaiti 'Burnetteis' glad: to' kilo - the"Boormans are • the , hook ' ' '
<br /> the warm pot belly stove in the middle of- the room. IF a piece of local history, a school where The children and parents pitched in to keep the '
<br /> The heat from the wood-burning stove felt good she spent five years of her'youth. school spiffy, Burnette said, She remembers washing '
<br /> after the one-mile walk down N .C. 54 to the small "It is a landmark," Burnette said. "To some of us the windows, raking up pinestraw in the _school yard
<br /> two-room schoolhouse that served about 50 African- that live in this community, it's special." and keeping the hardwood floors shiny with a coat '
<br /> American elementary school students in the first half The Boormans, and a few volunteers, have been of liquid wax.
<br /> of the century. spending their weekends at the school trying to "It was our school," Burnette said. "We took care
<br /> When it' s doors restore the 1 ,700 of it. We made it look nice around there."
<br /> first opened around1 . �� ;;,,;: ,:, I:,;,y ;, f; ."; , square-foot wooden The Boormans both grew up on Minnesota farms .
<br /> 1907, the Hickory „ ; ' ! 4 � a Ifr , •ii .
<br /> t , �k , building. During the Both remember their own days in cold one-room
<br /> Grove School : : : t , ' ^f? • t week, about 10 rural schoolhouses,
<br /> resented anff
<br /> ' : ": r° artists use the school "I love old buildings;' said Gary, whose father
<br /> oppAl
<br /> ortunity for ,3;7<' ' : :? offl, 1'• "' - .1 fl _41�. to sculpt and make built the Boorman 'family home and all the farm
<br /> African-American + IF r a 1 ;' r }<,:.t .. Eventually, buildings the familproperty. I
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<br /> children to receive Natalie Boorman, Unlike mere renovation — where the old is often
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<br /> � ' _ '' "' 3'"' who s a founder of replaced by the new — with restoration the
<br /> an education, a rare k • s,,' ' ' ry .fix = i
<br /> experience in the :..; : : , 4 is ,
<br /> xp �.� ` �, �� �' �� ' ' �`� the co-op hopes to Boormans are entrenched in the delicate work of
<br /> segregated South. { ` ' " '4 } ! = ? ,, a;" ;'s ; offer programs for saving, preserving and restoring the old.
<br /> :, `,+; ?r' 'It'4i. n ids i=' `; toll r,� r;, ,
<br /> Since the school ; • IF: F :..
<br /> ,;,. ,, > f";'+T'% Ql�l ,',{ people living in the "The trick is to preserve without destroying
<br /> closed its doors in ,4•fv. ' .,a: ,S r, . �^ ,` !;;! ',:;? < ';`; •: , t ' neighborhood that , historic value, Gary said; restore without altering
<br /> the earl 1950s the ' < ? x'\ ry: ,, s :-` = ` �s,�.' sits about three the history of the buildin You really need to work
<br /> building which : Ad '`"'r ` "` F ' k"`''' ' " � °" ; ,� 3` " miles from with what you've' got, more fixing rather than
<br /> + � \ ; " ` downtown Chapel replacing."
<br /> r � 'didn t even have ;<, �,, ;', •:' : p
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<br /> ` ' ' L: , "�` Hill. When it might be easier to just nail on a new
<br /> indoor plumbing, S, v °;:fil % ,
<br /> has been throu hAt
<br /> ,•„ " ' When Burnette board, Gary tries to keep as much of the old as he
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<br /> several ; ., ;:, - - • : �• i 3i' `' '? >?: :,, ' `' }f' went to school, she can — "to replace as little as possible. It's a slow
<br /> transformations. It remembers, the process. It's much more delicate. You've got to work
<br /> has been used as a ' Gary Boorman moves some boards before tearing down textbooks were old with the building. If your goal is to preserve, then
<br /> rooms and fixtures that were added by the building's
<br /> day care center, a and dated. Her you just enjoy the process . Everything just takes
<br /> church, a night club previous owner. The building will now be used to house white counterparts ' longer than I expect."
<br /> and, a community a pottery cooperative and will be called the Hickory could ride the school The Boormans have done preliminary work to get
<br /> center. Grove Arts Center. bus to class, and it's the school listed on the National Register of Historic
<br /> The building is unlikely that the Places. They have petitioned. Orange County and
<br /> going through another transformation that owners white parents had to chop wood so their children state officials to help them do what's necessary to
<br /> Natalie and Gary Boorman hope will be its last. The could have heat in the classroom, like some of the meet the national criteria.
<br /> IZI
<br /> Boormans, who bought the old school last year, are African-American parents did. Mitch Wilds, a senior restoration specialist with
<br /> restoring the building to its original appearance to And the white children probably didn' t have to the state, visited the Hickory Grove School- to advise
<br /> use it as an artists' co-op. leave class to use an outhouse. For Burnette and her the Boormans as to how best to restore the building.
<br /> As the first white owners, the Boormans say they classmates, water for washing and drinking had to He advised them to first repair water damage and
<br /> want to be respectful of the building's heritage and be carried in buckets from a house across the street fix the roof — most of the original tin roof is still in
<br /> history; they want to preserve part of the memories from the school, , good shape. The Boormans are also renovating some
<br /> that Vivian Burnette and hundreds of other African- "Chapel Hill and Carrboro were just as segregated of the renovation work that was done to the
<br /> American children have. as Mississippi at that time," Burnette said. "We had •
<br /> V.," XT., }.,, ; o I ".,>o LIVII a+ fire+ cio'h + urban a real fn u,aMot and in +hP w;n+Pr PVPrvhodv was mid . See SCHOOL, Page D10
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