If you’ve spent much time browsing the Field Guide, you know that I’m usually inspired by a love of old things, especially if those things add a depth of meaning to my own memories and experiences. Through a little foraging and pandemic-motivated restoration, a new “old thing” is gracing the walls of our entryway as we come and go. It’s giving a fun, old school vibe to our virtual learning efforts, and surrounded by vintage jack-o-lanterns, it’s bringing a finished touch to this much-used space. Today, I wanted to share a little more about this pandemic project!
On a whim a few years ago while visiting our Busy Bee farm, we decided to take a closer look at the old Salem School on Highway 14. The brick structure isn’t in use and is quite run-down, but I’ve always been curious about it because of some of the family stories I’ve heard about the place.
That summer, we stopped by the caretaker’s home to pick up a key and permission to check it out. At the time, the building on the National Register of Historic Places was structurally sound enough to wander through, and we went exploring. The school, built in the early 1900s, was virtually empty when we decided to visit, except for two things – an old run-down wood-top table and a chalkboard leaning against one of the walls in the largest room. In a “save it now or lose it to the elements” moment, I asked the caretaker for permission to take the table and chalkboard, and he said yes.
I worked on the table first, and it’s now the venue for most of my watercolor and block printing in the studio. But, the chalkboard required more work, and has been leaning against the wall in my entryway until this covid season provided the cabin-fever nesting binge required to restore and hang it in the place I had envisioned.
My grandfather attended Salem School for his elementary grades and “graduated” in 1925. I suppose that’s one reason I wanted to hang this piece of history in our home. Later, the building became a community center, and my mother remembers attending Christmas parties there.
When I found the chalkboard, it was covered in names and dates of clandestine visitors from before the structure was managed by a caretaker. As I washed down the board, I discovered that underneath the more recent markings, it had been used as a church Sunday school roster for a class that met there in years gone by. Under the grime, I found the words “To-Day’s Record” etched in aging, stained chalk across the top of the board with spaces for member names, offerings, and attendance below it. I knew then that the words “To-Day’s Record” should be a permanent part of this chalkboard.
With typical depression era ingenuity, the chalkboard was meant to hang from the top of sliding wall panels that were used as movable classroom dividers when the school was in use. Thus, the tall wood pieces on each side of the board — much too tall for even the high ceilings in our entry. To fit the board in our space, I cut those pieces flush with the top of the frame and kept the remnants with rusted hardware in tact — just because.
It took quite a few coats of chalkboard paint to cover the names, scratches and indentions from so many years of use, and though it is still not smooth, I think it bears its history pretty well. I traced off the words “To-Day’s Record” that were written at the top and repainted them for a new generation of rosters and lists. Now, I love having this remnant in our home. It almost entirely covers the wall outside my studio, hanging above an old red desk that belonged to my Aunt Betty, and plenty of chalk awaits to record our own family agenda.
Hello & welcome! I’m Haley Montgomery, and I’m the designer and owner of 
