Closed in 1957, a schoolhouse in Utah stood abandoned for decades. Then its 1,000 residents spent 40 years to restore it as community centre

Nothing, not even an abandoned schoolhouse, fallen into disuse and dusty, is beyond having a new lease of life and being restored to its former glory. In Spring City, Utah, a schoolhouse that had been closed in 1957 was restored thanks to painstaking efforts by the residents of Spring City. Even though there were just 1,000 residents in the city, they got together, raised $2 million and left a desolate schoolhouse brand new once again. This initiative occurred over a span of 30 years. This proved that a community, no matter how small, if they come together, can move mountains.

When the brick Romanesque-style building reopened in 2011 as the town’s community centre, Alison Anderson, president of Friends of Historic Spring City, told Saving Places that people can accomplish a lot of things when no one cares about taking credit.

The schoolhouse, before it was restored in 2011, served as storage space before the Daughters of Utah Pioneers purchased it for a meagre $1 to protect it from being razed to the ground. A fundraising event was started in 1981, but it wasn’t till 2011, did the schoolhouse finally got restored properly.


According to Saving Places.org, the house needed its woodwork and staircases rebuilt. It’s drywall; heating, mechanical, and electrical were also not in the best condition. The community repaired the defects while keeping the schoolhouse aesthetic from the year it was established – 1899 – untouched and intact.

As per Preservation Utah, the public school is described as a polychrome brick Victorian schoolhouse designed by Provo architect Richard C. Watkins. The Friends of Historic Spring City raised a $100,000 Eccles Foundation grant matched by $160,000, secured through its own fundraising efforts; a $100,000 pledge from the Whitmore family; and a $323,000 grant and $323,000 low-interest loan from the Community Impact Board in 2012.

Aside from undertaking ambitious restoration projects, the FOHSC also runs a small grants programme that assists property owners fund restoration work on National Register-listed buildings and agricultural outbuildings. It also helps students fund their higher education through a scholarship programme that was introduced in 2001.

In 2010, Forbes Magazine recognised Spring City as one of the Prettiest Towns in the US.