GREEN, Ohio — "Finally."
Green Mayor Gerard Neugebauer summed things up with one word. He was referring to the historic Lichtenwalter School getting its new roof.
"It was in pretty bad condition," Neugebauer said in a recent interview. The building, located in Boettler Park, was torched back in 2016. All the contents and roof were lost. The only think left standing were the brick walls of the school that which was built late in the 1800's.
Rather than raze the charred structure, city council and the mayor approved hiring a contractor to rebuild the school.
It has long been used by the Green Local School District to teach students what life was like in a school from the 1880's. Instead of reading, writing, and 'rithmatic, it's now rebuilding, roofing, and recording.
Visual Storyteller Ashley McComb is documenting the rebuild.
"One of my motivations is to serve the community, to help continue on, you know? So when we're talking about education and the next generation, there's nothing better than that."
Mayor Neugebaurer echoed the importance of saving one of this communities important links to the past.
"Not a lot of us really understand what it was like to live in Ohio in the 1880's, right? And so certainly it's history, but having an understanding of a time that was a lot different that now, and parting that knowledge to our children is very important."
Lichtenwalter School is expected to be open for tours in the Spring of 2020.