Wow! What a deal!
Can I interest you in a 1913 masonry school building for $1?
Nothing against the train club that meets in the basement that is thinking of buying it, but I have doubts that their proposal is sustainable over the long haul.
This building seems to me to be perfect for conversion to residential. I’d move there in a flash. Our tour of the building revealed high ceilings, wonderful old beadboard and magnificent windows. There’s a park right across the street (too bad “park” these days is less about Olmstedian concepts and more about a patch of green with a few trees and a picnic table…), it’s in the middle of a Victorian commuter neighborhood, which means it’s walking distance from the train.
This is the suburbs where that [frankly, misguided] American dream of a single family home surrounded by green turf holds dominance. But there are a variety of “types” that would love to live in the burbs in city style housing. The empty nester type who is downsizing, but wants to stay close to family. People like me, who wish they still lived in the city but while we’re in the ‘burbs wish we didn’t have to deal with lawns to mow and gutters to clean (but who can’t quite adopt the notion of living in one of a row of identical townhouses). The just-starting type who isn’t quite ready for a house, but just came out from the city where they dearly loved their loft-style apartment in the old lace/shirt/chocolate/lamp factory.
So sign me up for 2-A when the renovation is complete. So long, big yard!
"Give me a penthouse view!"
Or, if someone wants to turn it into cool artists’ studios (amazing light!) that would be a nifty idea, too!
Network this one, people! This is the sort of building that adds distinctive character to a neighborhood and shouldn’t be demolished.
It’s $1.00.
For the price of the McDonald’s value meal, you can have a 1913 school building and the 1891 annex. Sounds like a deal to me!
Square footage and info like that is here, in the Real Estate section on the Bulletin Board.
Nostalgic for the original Wayback Machine?
My Own Time Machine: Buildings, Places, People & Things 
That is awesome! I love the idea of lofts in an old school house. Here in Burlington, VT we have the Champlain School Apartments, which are rented lofts. http://shell.rieley.tripod.com/rieleyproperties/id8.html
The $1 reminds me of a program in Lynchburg, VA. I can’t find a website about it but a friend of mine bought a historic home for $1 in an “up-and-coming” part of town and rehabbed it. I don’t know the specifics of it (i.e. owner occupancy for a certain number of years or anything like that). Is this school house of a similar program? Have you heard of the Lynchburg dollar houses?
Kaitlin — thanks so much for the link. What’s really interesting is that building also appears to have the “split-level” entrance that this 1913 one has — there were concerns expressed on the tour about the difficulty of allowing ADA access and various other adaptability issues. I suspect the building you share used that annex at the back as a work-around for those same issues. (There’s always some sort of a work-around…)