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Thanks to a generous grant from the Calaveras Community Foundation the project is complete.
After half a century the original 1854 "Bermuda style" shutters are coming back. All eight of these very rare style shutters will be installed soon thanks to a donations, a grant and dedicated volunteers. (The GoFundMe campaign is also complete.)
Bermuda shutters were popular before electric lights and air conditioning. They were designed to flip up with adjustable louvers to let air and light in as needed. What better time to climb on a ladder and install a new unpainted original style replica shutter to see how it looks than when the building is 45 inches higher sitting on blocks while the foundation is being repaired!
Why? In 1978 the original 1854 shutters disappeared during well meaning but poorly planned renovations. (Or was it something more devious?) By digging through the dusty archives we found a letter from the owner of the home next door who was a dedicated volunteer involved in the building's restoration. His home which included a building once used as a Wells Fargo Office in front and a giant 1890s barn in the back is also a registered historical landmark. And as a professional builder he had done his research.
Oversights like missing shutters are not uncommon to rural community-owned structures. Poor maintenance was allowed to happen even during the first 100 years when it was a public school. To quote the professional condition assessment report that was commissioned by the Douglas Flat Community Center: "...cycles of deterioration and repair roughly paralleled the class size and active use of the school...rather than periodic maintenance, as would likely occur with a private owner, the schoolhouse was allowed to deteriorate in repeated cycles, then every few decades with a flurry of activity the community would band together and make repairs and sometimes alterations. These had to last until the next wave of maintenance effort to make the building whole again."
When the Vallecito Union school district sold the schoolhouse to the Douglas Flat Community Center for one dollar it became even more vulnerable to deterioration and the whims of volunteers. Often hardworking skilled local volunteers would lose interest or quit in frustration. Others may have thought they knew what is best for the schoolhouse without doing any research and may have used the building for profit or simply as a vanity project to show how cool and charitable they were. (The decor of miners cabin on the property is such an example.)
Another example of this "Only I know what is best for the schoolhouse" mentioned below is a copy of the 1978 letter from the concerned next door neighbor which was CC'd to then governor Jerry Brown during his first of four terms. (Click images of letters to enlarge.)
It seems the shutters were taken to the workshop of what was then called the California Conservation Corps on Six Mile Road. Whatever happened the old green shutters were never rebuilt and were replaced by boring standard shutters, painted yellow and now were beginning to fall apart after 47 years.
We contacted what is now called the Vallecito Conservation Camp and they politely told us they had no knowledge of the shutters. We had hoped and still hope to find remnants of a shutter to study the workmanship and original colors. Based on photographic evidence we assume the shutters on the other side of the building which gets much less sun were in better condition and may have been easily refurbished and sold on the black market because of their very uniqueness.
When this website was created 2021 obviously the main fund raising goal was to repair the building's crumbing foundation so it could keep welcoming people for another 170 years and beyond. Soliciting the money to raise the building was a daunting goal. Increasing public awareness of the building's much needed restoration was the overall goal. Replacing the shutters was a side goal but very important for the aesthetics and authenticity as we want the building and grounds to retain its gold rush-era appearance. (Best for photos, rentals and one-room schoolhouse enthusiasts.)
To read details of the Condition Assessment Report of the entire building click the "history" link above. A PDF of the full report is available.
(Click images of letter to enlarge.)
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