At risk status
Former school house, now community centre requires major renovations. If local fundraising is unsuccessful the building may deteriorate to a state beyond repair.
Information:
Former school house, now community centre requires major renovations. If local fundraising is unsuccessful the building may deteriorate to a state beyond repair.
Name & Location:
Old Ravenscliffe Schoolhouse
1808 Ravenscliffe Road
Huntsville
Town of Huntsville
Owner:
Trillium Lakelands District School Board
Year Completed:
The building date is estimated by general appearance to have been built during the late Edwardian or First World War.
Notes:
Following amalgamation of schools, the former schoolhouse for Ravenscliffe has been used as a community centre. The building holds memories for those who went to school there and have attended community events. There have been recent efforts to fundraise $250,000 for repairs to the structure. The building does not have indoor plumbing, has always been served by an outhouse.
The building is not dated in the Huntsville Heritage Register.
The simple handsome single story polychromatic brick structure with gable roof and brick quoins on the corners sits well back from the road. It is entered off a shed roofed open entrance porch, with braced wood posts. There are two entrance doors, perhaps boys and girls were separated. There are four double hung single glazed windows on the side faces to light the single open space.
Current Use:
Community centre
- Ravenscliffe Resident Trying to Revive Community Centre, My Muskoka Now
Author - Doug Crosse
Date - October 6, 2018
Notes - A thermometer in front of the Ravenscliffe Community Centre reveals the long journey to come.
A renovation of the 80-year-old hall is going to cost around $250,000 and currently, the fundraising sign is showing where the bank account sits, which is around $10,000.
The fundraising thermometer at the Ravenscliffe Community Centre. (Jane Keevil photo)
Rick Keevil is the President of the Ravenscliffe Community Centre Association. He says work has already started on the former one-room schoolhouse located just northeast of Huntsville.
“Initially we are going to do some renovations to the existing building,” explains Keevil as he oversees a large community garage sale at the centre. “We have a ceiling, a furnace to install, a soffit and fascia to put on and a new electrical panel.”
More information
- Huntsville Heritage Register
Notes - Note the building is not dated on the register, but it is listed.
More information
- Huntsville Doppler, Ravenscliffe’s historic community centre making a comeback thanks to dedicated volunteers
Author - Laura Maclean
Date - October 27, 2015
More information
