AULT — Longtime resident Mike Freeman thought it was a bad idea when this farming town voted in 1997 for a bond issue that also called for the demolition of the aging Ault High School.
“A lot of us went to this school and enjoyed it,” Freeman said. “But mostly we thought it was still better built than the newer schools in town.”
That same year Freeman and some like-minded neighbors were elected to the school board. Once seated, they pushed to rebuild their former school — not just as a monument, but as a functioning, modern-day education center for today’s kids.
“We wanted this building to be around for our children’s future,” Freeman said.
So began a remarkable, long and painstaking turnaround for a building constructed in 1921, just as President Warren G. Harding moved into the White House.
Specialists were hired to help restore the three-story, Mediterranean-style landmark, located just off Colorado 14, at the west entrance to Ault.
“Everyone who worked on this building was an artist, not just a handyman,” said Mark Owens, Highland RE-9 School District’s director of grounds and buildings.
The building was retrofitted for disabled children — handrails and automatic doors were added, and the school’s old coal shaft was replaced with an elevator.
“Every change, every new addition meant hours and hours of meetings,” Owens said. “We wanted everything to be just right.”
This result was that the refurbished building, renamed Highland Middle School, won the 2009 Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation.
But just as importantly, the school is being restocked with chairs, desks and lockers as it prepares to reopen to about 180 middle-schoolers this fall.
That is what makes the school’s resurrection so important, said Estella Cole, historic preservation specialist at the State Historical Fund.
“Ault High School showcases one of the State Historical Fund’s primary missions: to return historic buildings to communities for good use,” she said.
The project included upgrades to the mechanical, electrical and data systems. To keep the historical look of the building, new wiring and cabling were hidden behind baseboards or channeled into existing plaster, which was then restored to its original appearance.
Floor, wall and ceiling finishes were also restored to the way they appeared when the school opened to prairie kids in and around Ault.
New double-hung windows exactly replicate the building’s original windows, Owens said. Students will be warmed by steam heat and cooled by an evaporative cooling system.
In all, the renovation cost over $3 million.
Much of it came from the Highland RE-9 School District capital budget, supplemented by $800,000 in State Historical Fund grants. Former Superintendent Dennis Scheer also proved adept at finding and winning grants to help fund the renovation, Freeman said.
There was plenty of grunt work, including the removal of asbestos. But the rebuild also called for some finesse, such as the placement of special light fixtures to look like the 1920s models.
“The result,” Owens said, “is that if you wanted to see what a school in the 1920s felt like, well, here you are.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
