Maplesville students help clean around historic home
Published 3:23 pm Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Maplesville High School students Neal Ousley (left) and Chase Girlie scrape paint off the exterior walls of the historic Foshee house in Maplesville on Tuesday as part of a community service project.
For the second year in a row, students from Maplesville High School helped clean up the Foshee house grounds Tuesday in preparation for the town’s Heritage Day event set for April 12.
Nearly 20 students in Pam Ousley’s Family and Consumer Science class and Joe Dennis’ Agriscience class spent class time at the house, helping with tasks such as scraping paint off the exterior wood and raking fallen leaves and tree twigs in the yard into piles to be discarded.
The cleanup counts toward students’ community service activities in FCCLA (Future Career and Community Leaders of America) and FFA (Future Farmers of America).
“We just feel like it’s so important … for [students] to learn how to give back to their community,” Ousley said.
Maplesville Historical Society members Joel Atchison, Clem Clapp and Wayne Arnold supervised the cleanup Tuesday.
The town assumed ownership of the historic home from former owner Ovid Merchant in March 2012, after a storm caused extensive damage to the structure.
The historical society expressed interest in repairing and preserving the house, so with the town’s permission, members launched a restoration project in hopes of the house being added to the Alabama Historical Commission’s site registry someday.
Atchison said members expect the house to be finished in several more years.
Tasks to be done include scraping the remainder of the paint off the exterior walls, repainting the walls, repainting the front and back steps outside, affixing new screens to the porch and putting up the shutters after they have been repainted.
“It’s going to take a couple of years, maybe three,” Atchison said. “The value of the property is going up with everything we do. We’re really thankful and appreciate these school kids and teachers for coming out here.”
MHS students (left to right) Mariah Morton, Kelsey Gomes, Marissa Stough, Tyler Robinson and Gus Walker work on the front yard and porch of the house.
If the weather permits, the students will spend another hour cleaning at the house Wednesday.
Troy Harrison, a junior in Dennis’ class, said he enjoyed his first cleanup at the house Tuesday.
“It makes you feel real good about doing this,” Harrison said.
