The Snowflake Academy Foundation moves forward to make renovation a reality


By: Emily Robbins


The Snowflake Academy has always been more than a structure of brick and mortar to the people of Snowflake, Arizona. Within its walls, the Academy holds more than a century of the town's history, including the efforts of pioneers who sacrificed their time and money to build and rebuild the historic edifice.

Now the Academy building stands in need of assistance once more. It has past its prime, and only recently escaped the fate of demolition.

Members of the Snowflake Academy Foundation, a group of people dedicated to the conservation of the building, are looking to the school's Alumni and the community to help renovate the schoolhouse, so people can continue making memories within its walls.

Humble Beginnings

According to the Mormon Historic Sites Registry, pioneers wasted no time establishing schools for their children after settling in the Silver Creek Valley in 1878.

By 1879 there was an elementary school; nine years later they had established the Snowflake Academy for education extending past the 8th grade.

The Academy began as more of an idea than a physical building, as students and teachers floated between rented locations for a decade.

Finally, it was decided the Academy should have a permanent home.

This ambitious project cost the members of the small farming community a small fortune of $2,000, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated $1,000 to finish the building.

"It's something they all donated to, they all gave their time to help build it," said Cathryn McDowell, Project Coordinator for the Snowflake Academy Foundation. "It was so important to them, and [that feeling] comes through the generations of ancestors."

Although it took much sacrifice, the original brick Academy building was completed and dedicated in 1910, to the delight of the community.

Delight soon turned to devastation a few months later, when the brick building burned down on Thanksgiving Day; leaving behind only a few pieces of furniture.

As a testament to their determination and resilience, Snowflake pioneers began rebuilding two weeks later.

Local quarry owner, Frank Willis, was contracted to quarry the sandstone that makes up the Academy building today.

With funding assistance from the LDS Church, and the efforts of local volunteers and stonemasons, the building was rebuilt and dedicated on November 27, 1913.

Snowflake Academy Today

As the Academy building approached its 90th birthday, students and teachers found they needed more room, and a more modern facility.

The school planned to tear down the old building so they could rebuild on that spot.

However, the community reached out to save the old Academy, and purchased it from the school owners, landing themselves with the responsibility of deciding its fate.

"Once we had it we didn't want to leave it sitting there non-functioning, but to be able to use it we were going to have to renovate it," McDowell said.

As details on the renovations came through, it became apparent that this was going to be a huge project: The third time this community would step up and save the Academy.

Renovating a building in the 21-century comes with more complications than a rebuild in the 1900's. The cost of this new project exceeded the building's original budget of $12,000 by more than 16,000%, a total of $1.9 million.

The Snowflake Academy Foundation was formed to focus on the completion of the Academy renovation, and to turn it into a public library.

"Unfortunately we're a small, poor, rural community, so people don't have the money that it takes nowadays to build a building," McDowell explained. "But we've had Eagle Scout projects there, service projects there with groups and we do fundraisers."

Currently, the foundation has raised about $500,000 between donations and grants. A far cry from $1.9 million, but that hasn't stopped the Academy Foundation from moving forward.

"We aren't waiting for all the money; we're going forward as we get money so we can have people see that their money is having an effect right now," McDowell explained.

Renovations are taking place in "phases."

Phase One and Two dealt with external renovations, such as the roof and the windows, while Phases Three, Four and Five deal with internal issues.

Phase Three reinforced the floors to be able to withstand the weight of thousands of books, Phase Four added an elevator and now Phase Five includes the daunting tasks of updating the electrical system, plumbing and gas lines, adding some bathrooms and cleaning out any asbestos.

Unfortunately, unlike the old days, volunteers from the community aren't usually qualified to complete these tasks.

"Nowadays you have to have people who have certain commercial licenses and bonds, and now we are just a lot more prohibited in what we can do. But our buildings don't burn down, so I guess there's a reason!" McDowell laughed.

The Snowflake Academy Foundation has received unmatched assistance and support from the Snowflake Heritage Foundation.

John Taylor, president of the Heritage Foundation for many years, saw the Snowflake Academy project grow, and encouraged that a group be formed to focus solely on that building.

The Heritage Foundation has continued to raise and contribute large amounts of money to the Academy Foundation, sponsoring a Special Collections room.

"That's a really historic building, not only to the community but to the Church," Taylor said. "Anything that was significant in the history of the community is part of its heritage and fabric. It's essential that we not cut ourselves loose from that past."

Members of the Snowflake Academy Foundation hope to be ready to move in and dedicate the building by 2013, the 100-year anniversary of the current building's 1913 dedication.

"It's not preserving something for the sake of preserving something," Taylor said. "It will make a fine public library when it is completed, and it will be a serviceable building that should serve the community for another 100 years or more."

Editor's note: People interested in donating to the Academy Foundation can visit their Web site, www.snowflakeacademy.com/How_to_help.html.