It has been seven years now since a devastating ceiling collapse forced the closing of the West Ward School as a day-to-day schoolhouse serving the children of the Town of Wakefield. Since that time, the school was closed and subsequently turned over from the School Department to the Board of Selectmen. In 1998, the West Ward School Association, a nonprofit organization formed to preserve and protect the building, was given permission to try to restore the building as a nineteenth century schoolhouse, which will ultimately once again serve the town of Wakefield: every year in May and June, the school will educate Wakefield’s children as a ‘living history schoolhouse,’ allowing children to experience school as it would have been in the mid to late nineteenth century, and to learn about the history of the Town of Wakefield. For the remainder of the year, the school was serve as a Wakefield History Museum, hosting exhibits from the town’s past: the Society’s extensive collection of wicker and rattan furniture from the Heywood Wakefield Rattan factory during part of the year, and other exhibits as the year progresses.

Before the interior of the school’s restoration began,, however, much work had to be done. As the result of the grant funds that came to the town through the efforts of the Wakefield Historical Commission, a great deal of structural work was done on the school.
Architects Brian Thomson and Associates, and structural engineer, Donald Dusenberry, worked closely with the state in steadying the structural problems of the 1847 building.
* The first floor structure was upgraded to code
* The metal support columns in the first floor classroom were removed
* Steel beams were put in place to support the second floor and the attic floor
* Braces were put up to support the first floor and second floor

When a potentially devastating infestation of carpenter ants was discovered, the state increased their funding by $10,000 in order to rid the schoolhouse of both the ants -- and the problems they had caused. The sills were replaced on the east and west sides of the building, as a result.
In the process, the Massachusetts Historical Commission believed that the school should be returned to its original nineteenth century appearance. Toward that end, windows that had been covered up decades ago were opened up again (and, in most cases, replaced with sturdier, more energy efficient windows!) and shutters were put back on the school.
In addition, in order to eventually meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a handicapped accessible entrance was placed on the back of the building; the interior bathrooms were leveled; new bathroom openings were framed in, and currently await new plumbing and fixtures.
The grant was a godsend, but it stopped short of satisfying some vital needs. Plumbing, electrical work and systems engineering (things like a heating system) were not covered by the grant. The grant had supplied matching funds -- state funds had to be matched dollar for dollar. In order to maximize the amount of grant funds the town would receive, the West Ward Association and the Wakefield Historical Commission dedicated the maximum amount of funds to structural issues. The result is a building that looks wonderful from the outside, but its interior still has much, much work to be done.

Ironically, the building probably close to its original 1847 state as far as systems go -- the immediate needs are for a new electrical system, a new heating system, and for new plumbing. (At present, since the old lavatories were removed to make room for future handicapped accessible bathrooms, there is no running water, and no toilet in the building at all.) Meanwhile, little by little, through yard sales and events and the sale of the “Images of America: Wakefield” history book, the West Ward School is working to advance towards its goals little by little, to advance toward our goals.

In February of 1999, we placed a flyer in the MLD mailing, which received a wonderful response from the town. This was so important -- for every dollar that was received, we received two dollars worth of work on the schoolhouse -- one from our members, and one from the state. A total of $188,000 has been spent on the school to date -- but we have a long way to go, and we estimate that another $100,000 worth of work will need to be done to the interior of the schoolhouse.

This coming spring, the work will take another big step forward with a complete electrical overhaul of the nineteenth century structure -- bringing us that much closer to establishing the schoolhouse as the town’s museum, allowing the 1847 structure to continue its educational function: this time educating both children and adults of the town’s history, of both illuminating and preserving Wakefield’s past.