GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Tim Travis’ mission to "turn back the clock" by renovating an 1876 schoolhouse in Grand Haven has started the next phase of the project.
Experts with Dietz House Moving Engineers are digging underneath the former Bignell Schoolhouse on Ferris Street.
“This is the exciting phase and the most expensive phase,” Travis said.
The homeowner says he’s saving as much as he can, including the original stonework and hardwood floors.
“Old homes first, have a whole different energy, but the quality of the lumber, the craftsmanship that was put in those homes is far superior to anything that you could build new,” Travis said.
Someone looking forward to seeing the project’s progress is David MacKellar.
His family moved into the former school in 1956 after it shut down the year before. David was 5 years old at the time.
“I always teased everybody that I was going to school 24 hours a day because I lived in a school, and I went to a different school,” MacKellar said.
The MacKellar family, which includes six kids, lived in that one-room schoolhouse for about 10 years before they remodeled.
“We gradually turned it into some rooms upstairs. So, I ended up having five bedrooms in this structure,” MacKellar said.
Beams are in place to lift the original building. The objective is to put in a new foundation and basement.
“I think people should, when they see old historic houses, they should appreciate them,” Travis said. "They need to understand that there is a time and place that needs to be preserved and it's not a disposable thing to do."
The one room the MacKellar family lived in will be transformed into kitchen, dining and living spaces. Plus, an addition with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms are planned.
“I think my siblings and me thought, you know, this might be a nice way to let it go and then see what he comes up with,” MacKellar said.
Travis says he’s moving in when the renovations are complete.
“Quite honestly, this is where my heart is on this side of the state. I was born in Grand Rapids, and we would visit here every summer because my grandfather built a cottage on Lake Michigan in Grand Haven,” Travis said.
And while seeing his former home stripped to down to the studs is bittersweet for MacKellar, he says he’s happy that Travis is preserving the character of a structure that has survived for nearly a century and a half.
The homeowner says the goal is to have this next phase of the project including the addition built and dried in by the fall.
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