One full year before MSGL acquired the property that is now our campus, the Calvary Baptist Church invited us to hold an open house for our families. These photos, from September 24, 1999, show lots of familiar faces and a campus without ramps, fences, or the 10 inches of snow that is on the ground today.
I can't bear to throw away a good opportunity for a photo comparison, but we don't have a current photo taken from the same perspective. Here are two beautiful photos that offer an idea of what this view looks like today.
I hope you were able to enjoy seeing some green grass and leaves on the trees. And I promise that Spring will come exactly when it's supposed to. Until then, thanks for reading and have your best possible Wednesday!
15 years ago the Lafayette Journal and Courier announced MSGL's plans to add an elementary program and move all of its programs to a new space.
The Morton Community Center on Chauncey Avenue had been MSGL's home since 1985.
As the article states, the new elementary program was originally going to be housed in a home on Rainbow Drive that had been donated by an MSGL family. A change of plans relocated that first class to some available classroom space inside the Temple Israel on Cumberland Avenue.
In February 2001, all of our programs, from the parent-infant class through elementary, moved into our permanent home in the former Calvary Baptist church on Soldiers Home Road.
In 2007, the elementary classes moved into the Montessori House, a remodeled home adjacent to the campus.
MSGL has plans to expand once again in the near future to add a second toddler classroom and a gym/gross motor space.
Winter is upon us and the staff of the Wayback Wednesday department is preparing to head south for the season. (The staff certainly wishes this was true.) Okay, we're not really going anywhere but we have discovered a treasure trove of awesome photos. We will be scanning them and organizing them over winter break. When everyone returns in January you can look forward to the beginning of "Building MSGL." It's the story of how our families built the MSGL campus that we know and love today.
To whet your appetites I am posting one photo from that winter of 2000. Look at this photo and see if you can figure out where in the school it is. The first commenter to get it correct wins a free Wayback Wednesday t-shirt. (The staff certainly wishes this was true.) Okay, no t-shirt but you can still be first. Have fun guessing!
Have a terrific Wednesday and an awesome winter break!
If there truly is a flashback movie that plays in our heads just before we die, the remodeling of the MSGL buildings will certainly be a part of mine. And the sweaty people covered in dust will be in it too, smiling (mostly) like they were in these photos from the first week of demolition.
The following pictures represent some of my favorite memories of the building project because we were all so young and optimistic. We didn't truly grasp what working for six months through the winter with no electricity and no toilets and no babysitters would be like. So many parents, teachers, spouses, and extended family members gave their days off and their nights and weekends to prepare this space to be our new and improved Montessori School of Greater Lafayette. They did it for free and, most importantly, they did it with a sense of humor.
Dragging the folding partitions out of the basement.
The above photo brings to mind a particularly disheartening day. The church basement was divided up into classrooms by these heavy, orange, folding partitions. Before we could start cutting into the concrete floors and tearing out the ceilng, we had to remove all of these partitions. Did I mention that they were extremely heavy? So heavy, in fact, that we couldn't move them once we got them detached and rolled up on the floor. I recall seeing Craig Lamb, Beth Nichols, and Tony Harvey pushing on them with all of their might and they just weren't budging. The wise, manly men in our group decided to drag them out of the basement using the Bobcat. Don Harvey did just that. As Tony, project manager, recalled, "That part of the demolition was really brutal. You would go in and see what was going to beat the heck out of you that day."
Just like in a Montessori classroom, every volunteer found a niche. Some of the parents didn't want to see anything go to waste, so they took out the light fixtures and the doors and anything that might be of value and marked it for a remodeling sale we had a few weeks later.
Ellie's mom is organizing the salvaged items in the future toddler room.
One of the reasons we had such a dedicated group of volunteers is that demolition work is really fun! After a long day we could put on our grubby clothes and work gloves, grab a Wonder Bar and tear into the drywall and studs.
Ron and Cathy Stier.
Brian Berndt.
Beth working in the future River Birch room.
Beth and Cathy take out nails so we could re-use the studs.
Tools like the Sawzall made the job a lot more fun. This volunteer is standing in what is now the Willow room.
Tony unloads another wheelbarrow of debris.
Water girls, Gaia and Grace.
The author was concerned about lawn maintenance.
I was really worried that the lawn would grow too long and we would look like bad neighbors. This was the first and last time I mowed the entire campus with a push mower.
That week was lots of fun, but I'm glad it's done. Have a great Wednesday!
Heather
On September 21, 2000, Montessori Parents, Inc. officially closed on the purchase of the property at 2552 Soldiers Home Road that would become the new campus of the Montessori School of Greater Lafayette. To celebrate and prepare for the next step, the board of directors and some staff and parents met that evening in the sanctuary of what was the former Calvary Baptist Church. Board president Craig Lamb offered a toast with champagne served in paper cups.
The next morning, demolition of the buildings began. MSGL parent Tony Harvey coordinated the building project. His father, Donald Harvey, was the general contractor.
These are photos of the front of the sanctuary that is now the northwest corner of the Catalpa Room. When asked about these photos, Tony said that the gold walls on the left were part of the room that lead to the baptistry. "If you came to Calvary Baptist Church and you wanted to be saved," he explained, "you had to go through that room."
This was just the beginning of 5 months of hard and dirty work by many dedicated staff and parent volunteers. Three generations of families came together for one common goal. True friendships were forged. A lot of those people are still involved with MSGL today. I look forward to sharing the few photos and many stories of that time here on Wayback Wednesdays. If you were part of this amazing project and wish to share your stories, please add them as comments to the bottom of these posts or emaill me and I will be so happy to include them in an upcoming post. Of course, any photos you share will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading! Have a terrific Wednesday.
We're keeping things simple on Wayback Wednesday this week with a short and sweet little collection of photos from October, 2002. Teacher Judy West took the children of the Red Oak class on a nature hike to Purdue's Horticulture Park to enjoy the crisp morning, collect leaves, and hug some very deserving trees.
Do you have favorite photos you would like to share on Wayback Wednesday? Please contact me at heather@msgl.org. Have an outstanding Wednesday!
This week's installment of Building MSGL focuses on the work of the jackhammer, a tool that was put to much use during the first few months of the construction project. Lots of concrete had to be broken up and hauled away so we could remodel the buildings and install new steps and sidewalks.
Tony Harvey breaks up concrete in Building B to make space for new plumbing for sinks and bathrooms. This was one of his least favorite days of the entire 6-month project.
Looking at Building A as the concrete demolition gets underway.
Later that day, it looked like this. Watch that first step - it's a doozy.
Don Harvey and Craig Lamb prepare to take out the upstairs landing.
As the demolition continued, it became apparent that the light-duty jackhammer they had been using was not going to cut through some of the steps. One parent volunteer took a look at the slow progress they were making and set off to find a better solution. Half and hour later he pulled in with a trailer-mounted mobile air compressor and a much more powerful jackhammer. Tony Harvey said that was a real game-changer for this phase of the project.
"We had a little jackhammer that you could plug into an outlet in an airplane bathroom," he joked. "This parent came back with a rig that looked like Iron Man built it. When we flipped the switch on the big one you could see lights flicker in the apartments across the street," he said, once again, joking. "We had been working all day on those steps and in just 20 minutes with the big hammer, they were dust."
The old steps are broken up to make way for the new stairs/ramp that will lead into the upstairs hallway in Building A.
Just for fun, I am including before, during, and after photos from Building A so we can admire the progress from an old church basment entry to a modern, ADA-compliant school entrance.
Before.
During demolition.
Here it is with the concrete walls freshly poured.
Here, the railings are being installed.
And here it is that first summer, looking quite lovely.
Thanks for joining me in the wayback. Have a super Wednesday!