The Signal Mountain Grammar School was the first school in the town of Signal Mountain. It went from first to eighth grade. This photo was taken about 1928 or 1929 in front of the school. (John C. Wynn) – “ Signal Mountain ” by Mary Scott Norris and Priscilla Shartle.
Another problem has cropped up in the ongoing effort to determine the fate of Signal Mountain ’s historic but dilapidated 90-year-old grammar school building.
It doesn’t belong to the town, according to county records.
More than six years after the Hamilton County Board of Education officially transferred ownership of the property to Signal Mountain , the county assessor’s office still lists the owner as the school board.
As problems go, town attorney Phil Noblett said, this is a relatively easy one that should be resolved within the next month or so.
That will be weeks, he acknowledged, after the town council’s scheduled Monday night vote on whether to authorize a request for bids from contractors spelling out how much they would charge to make the old school building safe and usable again.
Town officials already know that preserving the community’s oldest building – home to the Mountain Arts Community Center -- wouldn’t be cheap.
During a May 17 joint meeting of the council and the MACC board of directors, Dave Hammel of Raines Brothers Inc. reported that about $5.9 million would be needed to renovate and restore the property.
However, according to the report, more than $3 million of that money would have no impact at all on the 90-year-old portion of the building. Instead, it would be used to prop up a series of additions tacked on over the years to accommodate increasing numbers of students.
“This amount is way more than I would ever consider spending on a project like this,” Councilman Chris Howley noted in the latest of the sporadic online reports in which he outlines his take on issues facing the council.
Built in 1926 of native rock harvested from the south side of Signal Mountain during construction of a new road making the amenities offered in the town more accessible to residents of the valley below, the old grammar school was the first building in the community intended for public use.
Designed as a meeting place for community groups as well as a school – Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church’s congregation, for example, met there before constructing their own chapel in 1928 -- the school is shaped like a V and features an impressive triple-arch stone entrance. The arms of the V form classroom-lined hallways which lead to a 240-seat auditorium.
Operated as a school for 73 years, the building began its current role as an arts center in 1999 after a citizens group persuaded then-council members to rent the empty building for a nominal fee.
Two years later, largely due to the efforts of original MACC director Karen Shropshire, the former school became the only building on Signal Mountain to be listed on the National Historic Register.
“I understand the historical significance of the building and that it has sentimental value to many of our residents who went to school there,” Councilman Howley wrote in his online comments. “It is currently the oldest building in the town’s possession.”
He said, “There is an option to preserve the front/oldest part of the building and make it into a visitor center which can house some of the MACC services for $1.1MM . . . I am still undecided on this but will be studying it further with the rest of the council in the coming weeks.”
For many Signal residents, preserving the school and continuing the arts-centered services provided under the auspices of the Mountain Arts Community Center are two sides of the same coin.
Earlier this year, longtime MACC supporters Lynn Anderson, Lolly Durant and Nancy Stagmaier started working toward the creation of a nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization christened the MACC Patrons.
The organization will have twin goals, it said: continuing to offer music, theater and visual arts classes as a way of promoting the arts and, as soon as possible, restoring the original school auditorium – which entails removing the standing water under the room and the resultant mold which now permeates it.
Other residents, however, aren’t convinced that’s the right approach.
For example, Lisa Ingram Crowder -- according to a letter published in Friends of Chris Howley – believes “the renovation of the building only benefits those who have an emotional attachment to that space.
”If the building had some historical significance that drew paying visitors, it would be one thing,” she said, writing in response to the councilman’s comments on Friends of Chris Howley. “but such as it is, the priority needs to be placed on sustaining the MACC as a programs organization . . . expanding programming (to offer) language classes, tutoring, adding a dance component, expanding the theatre program, installing practice cubicles, providing a for community informational meetings etc.
“I think the idea of demolishing the back (newer section) is a good compromise,” she commented.
The mix-up over who actually owns the building, a frustrated Signal attorney Noblett said, is because the 2009 deed of transfer was never recorded in the office of the Register of Deeds. Further, he said, it won’t be resolved until somebody comes up with an original copy of such a deed – and nobody know where the 2009 document is.
Since the registrar’s office will only accept an original copy, he said, he and school board attorney Scott Bennett hope to have school board members re-execute the deed during their next meeting.
Once they do so and he gets his hands on the original copy of the re-executed document, he promised, “Mr. Noblett himself will go straight to the registrar’s office and make sure it is properly recorded.”