We have a lot of work ahead of us when it comes to developing our campground, but one part that is already (mostly) complete is the main building that will be used as the co-working space. We often get asked if we built or renovated the main building, and although we have moved in some furniture and added our own décor to the space, we did not build or renovate the building ourselves.
The original schoolhouse building was established in 1894, but after burning down several times in 1945 they finally decided to build the first brick building. Inside the building there were three classrooms, with one holding the first, second, and third grades, another the fourth and fifth grades, and the third being home to the sixth, seventh, and eighth. After years of the schoolhouse had been vacant for so long and local vandals had left their marks, everyone assumed that when the land was eventually purchased the building would be torn down. In fact, in 2017 the land was purchased by the kin of the original land owner who had decided that since the school had been vacant for so long he would purchase the land back, with the intent to ultimately have the building torn down. Many people who went to school in this building still live in the area and were very curious what was going to happen to it when new owners took over the property.
To many people’s surprise, Dennis didn’t end up knocking down the building and actually sold the property to a young couple who wanted to turn the vacant building and the neighboring land into an RV park. With the help from the Stryker Construction team they renovated the building clearing it from all the asbestos, replacing the broken pipes, fixing the broken heating and air conditioning systems, and repairing the failed septic system, by the time they were done with the construction it looked like a brand new building!
In 2022, The Padgett’s decided that building an RV park wasn’t the path they wanted to take anymore. Lucky for us, we met Heath and Alyssa at the RVE Summit in fall of 2021, where we discovered that our vision for an RV park was very similar to theirs and we shared how we were looking for land or an older RV park to buy. A couple months after the summit they reached out to us to see if we were interested in taking the Montrose property off their hands, knowing that we could make the vision come to fruition. There was no hesitation from us and we jumped on the opportunity. It was now our turn to come in and make our changes to the schoolhouse. We plan to create an inviting co-working space in the main room of the building, adding a coffee bar and spaces for people to get work done outside of their RV. We also plan to turn one of the classrooms in to a camp store, another into a podcasting and YouTube studio, and the third into a meeting space for our guests or locals to use when needed, or use it as a space for families who road school to use as their classroom-then we would really come full circle with the schoolhouse renovation.
We are truly excited about all the projects we have ahead of us. The fact that the schoolhouse was once a place for children to learn, grow and play and is now a space for people to work, grow their businesses and explore the area makes us so happy. We love that the history of the building will be intertwined with the present and future of our campground.
