School House Move On Track

DAYTON - All's well that ends well.

The participants in Thursday's move of the historic Smith Hollow school house can say that with some relief now that the various parts of the building are safely at their destination on Front Street behind Skyline Fluid Power and Sunnyhill Gardens.

After nearly two decades since the idea of relocating and restoring the one-room school house came about, the main structure, roof and cupola have arrived at their new location on Dayton's historic pathway.

"I t 's been a long road," said Elizabeth Thorn, board member of the Blue Mountain Historical Society and liaison to the construction project team. "It's a project that's very important to this community. It's great to see it on the pathway."

But before the school was safely at its new home, there were some tense moments when the convoy of pilot cars and the hulking wooden structure reached a major bottleneck enroute to downtown Dayton from the Smith Hollow Road.

After more than a day and a half of wiggling through the countryside on a 12- mile route least disruptive to traffic or low-hanging power lines, the procession squeezed under the Highway 12 viaduct, inched down Washington Street and took a left on Sixth Street, after which it had to navigate around the rail tracks to reach Commercial Street.

J.D. Redd, owner of Walla Walla-based J.D. Land Clearing Construction who contracted the school relocation and foundation work, said the turn onto Sixth was a last-minute change due to an abundance of trees and cars on Washington Street. Shortly after 2 p.m., the transport was on the north of a side track used to rearrange box cars for the seed opera­tion at the Seneca plant when Redd realized he'd better call the tracks' owner, the Port of Columbia, to make sure he was going about the maneu­ver the right way. "At that point, we had a dilemma," Redd said. "We needed to solve it right away." By this time, the crew was skirting the tracks but was forced to bring the move­ment to a halt when Port of Columbia Director Jennie Dickinson arrived, waving her arms to stop the colossus before risking damage to the tracks.

Dickinson pointed out that the truck and trailer could not encroach on the rails or the ties, so the transport was backed up. Redd said he had his back turned to the truck when Dickinson walked up and did not see how the truck tire bumped up against the track, but told the driver to back up as soon as he did. It was clear the transport had to regroup and come up with a better plan. After some considerable head scratch­ing, the crew, along with members of the historical society and the port director, hatched with the kind of on-the-spot solution that made the participants feel lucky to be in a small town.

"It's a good community to bring a project like this together," said Redd, who described the two-day move as the biggest challenge he's had as a contractor so far. "I'd like to thank everybody along the way for being so cooperative." Everyone pitched in to temporarily push back the fence's razor wire crown surrounding the Seneca stor­age lot north of the tracks to let the 30-foot-wide school house squeeze between it and the ties on the railroad bed. "We were able to work it out, and no harm was done," Dickinson said. "I didn't want to stop such a historic movement. But they need to follow the guidelines when it comes to railroad right of way." Dunning had to be placed under the trailer's wheels to the north so the school house wouldn't tip and lean into the fence. It took at least 40 minutes to cover the distance of about half a football field, and it was "inch by inch," Thorn said.

It was one of the few snags in the move that involved more than a month of route planning and a handful of permits from government en­tities

ranging from the state's Department of Transporta­tion to the City of Dayton. The relocation began last Wednesday morning and ended later afternoon on Thursday after the transport made its final "parade" past the historic train depot and to the land the society bought for the school house's new home. It went up Smith Hollow Road, down Baker Road, east on Whetstone, across Highway 12, south on Court­ney, east on Johnson Hollow Road, south on Ronan Hill Road and west on Patit Road before it reached Dayton city limits and followed the city route described above.

When it had to pass the Lamberts' property near Highway 12, the family generously allowed Redd to temporarily push over a fence and trim some trees to make a corner. "It was a roundabout way, but the least disruptive," said Thorn, who praised Redd for his overall organization and coordination of the move. "He was amazing."

The society, which re­ceived a grant of nearly $80,000 for the move and its preparation, has enough funds to dig and pour a foundation, place the school house on it, remount the roof, restore the copula and begin some initial interior renova­tions.

Once restored, it will be­come one of the state's few classroom museums with a rotating exhibit area in an addition at the rear of the building.

Fundraising for the proj­ect is ongoing through grant writing, raffles, the annual Ground Hog Dinner, Spring Bingo, community work projects, yard sales and the Dayton High Class Chal­lenge campaign. For more information, call Elizabeth Thorn at 509-382-4820. Contributions can be mailed to BMHS, PO Box 163, Dayton, WA 99328.