Cleaning UP at the Former Woodburn School

Built in 1910, the Woodburn Elementary School served the children of the Woodburn Neighborhood of Morgantown, WV for decades as a place of education and as source for childhood memories. When the school closed in 2010, the children left but the school building remained, a lonely monument to times gone by in the neighborhood. However, in 2013, the building was acquired by the city and in 2014 the Woodburn School Redevelopment Commission was created in order to bring life back to the building and make it a place for childhood memories once again. 

Thanks to the efforts of the commission, the former Woodburn School building has been transformed into a non-profit hub. It’s home to several programs and organizations that are dedicated to improving the community and serving the children such as Friends of Deckers Creek, Boys and Girls Club, and PopShop. In addition to bringing in these non-profits, the commission has been working to maintain and rehab the physical building itself. It was for this endeavor that I contacted the commission and started planning a project with them that would help them in these efforts.

My project was a cleanup day of the garden spaces and walls of the main school building. While it might seem small in the grand scheme of preservation, a simple cleanup can and will have an impact on the other restoration efforts and the perceptions of the community. There were several vines growing on the facade of the building that my volunteers and I removed. Those vines would have exacerbated the erosion and deterioration of the brick and mortar. By clearing away the trash and clearing away dead and overgrown vegetation, the building looks more attractive and encourages people to engage with the activities hosted there. Once the garden spaces were cleared, there were new opportunities for one of the non-profits or the Woodburn community to replant and tend to the them. 

Not only was the commission thankful for the help, the community also appreciated the project. While I organized the cleanup day, the commission had organized a block party to take place at the school to introduce the community to the non-profits and rehab efforts taking place. As my volunteers and I cleared away the trash and vegetation, community members, including former teachers and students would come up to us and say how happy they were to see people who cared enough to take care of the building. They would smile as they walked by saying how nice it is to finally be able to walk on the sidewalk now that the vegetation was controlled. With such a positive response from community members, I have high hopes that my project has helped encourage others to take part in the good things happening at the former Woodburn School. 

Summer phillips

WVU BAD Buildings Preserve WV AmeriCorps