Historic Kage School restored

Seventy-three years later, Barbara Deimund Swink still remembers the day her brother was born -- and that she wasn't happy about it.

It was one of the few days she had to miss school.

Her brother, Keith Deimund, had never heard that story, and, with a laugh, apologized to his sister for the inconvenience.

Their story was just one of many told last Sunday at the open house for the newly renovated Kage School in Cape Girardeau.

From 1936 to 1938, Swink attended the school as a first- and second-grader, and what she recalled most vividly was how much fun it was learning in a one-room school with students from seven other grades.

Joanna Proctor holds her report card from the 1941-42 school year inside the renovated Kage School.

Swink and Deimund both attended the school, but 10 years apart.

"We both feel that we learned so much more because we were exposed to the other kids in the higher grades," Swink said. "When I was here, it was a two-room school; the partitions were down and on one side was the first, second, third and fourth grades, and when I was a first-grader, I learned to spell 'accommodate' and I thought I was really, really smart."

Her brother tells a similar story. Deimund remembers finishing his homework early while at school and copying the older kids' homework to do at home. He said he believes it really instilled in him an interest in spelling, reading and math.

Closed in 1966

In 1966 the school closed, and remained shuttered until Rick Hetzel bought the property almost 15 months ago. Hetzel purchased it from Deimund, who had owned it for at least 10 years. Deimund recalled wanting to save the property, and not see it demolished.

Visitors browse through the old Kage School, Sunday, May 10, 2015. (Laura Simon)

Thinking back to his school years, Deimund had quite a few stories to tell from the first and second grades. He remembered his teacher, Mrs. Klaproth; walking to school in the mornings if his dad couldn't drive him; being a "little-bitty guy" and having the older students watch out for him; and even playing ballgames in the schoolyard.

"I remember we used to play dodgeball on the back side there that goes down the hill, and if you threw the ball and missed somebody, it would go down the hill and go across the road and go into a hog pen that was down there -- you didn't want to be the one to go down there," Deimund said, laughing.

While Deimund never had the chance during his ownership, Hetzel's restoration of the old one-room schoolhouse saved the building from its impending collapse. The building had some structural issues, a large hole in one wall, and suffered from years of neglect, water damage and termites.

Hetzel served as the project's general contractor, and as owner of R. Hetzel Properties LLC, he has been fixing homes since his retirement as police chief in 2001. His company has continued to grow, and with each project, Hetzel develops a greater love for the history found in old buildings.

Certain requirements

Visitors browse through the old Kage School, Sunday, May 10, 2015. (Laura Simon)

"I had never done a building that was 1880," Hetzel said. "We had to go all the way to the walls and all the way to the dirt and all the way to the ceiling. And, again, you have to keep in mind it's in the national historic registry. To come up with a way we could use it, we could repurpose it, keep the historical integrity here as far as the artifacts and being able to reuse and repurpose some of this stuff -- we just felt like there had to be a lot of very careful decisions made."

Looking at what is now the Historic Kage School Guest Cottage, it's difficult to picture the dilapidated building it once was. Rebecca Ward was the project architect, and transformed the school into a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom living space with an open kitchen looking into the living room.

The building retains much of its old-school charm. The 13-foot ceilings remain, and immense windows continue to line the walls. The refinished pine floors were reinstalled, and the school's original letter board adorns the living room wall.

Keith Deimund and his older sister Barbara Deimund Swink, stand outside the newly renovated Kage School, Sunday, May 10, 2015. Swink attended Kage from 1936 to 1938 and Deimund attended the school from 1946-1948. (Laura Simon)

Now and then

Hetzel was determined to restore as much of the building's history as possible, while still modernizing it.

He repurposed the beams that ran down the middle of the school, putting two of the originals in the archway, used the limestone footing under the beams to create a flower bed out front and restored the school lights, which, he said, date to the 1930s or 1940s.

As Hetzel described illuminating the lights for the first time, his face lit up.

"I felt like Thomas Edison," he recalled. "I had one laying on my shop table and I had the bulbs in it and I wired the plug to it and it went 'ch-ch' and it lights up. And I'm going, 'Sweetie, look at this, I got light!' Because those lights hadn't been lit in 50 years. It was kind of an 'ah-ha' moment, if you will."

Later Hetzel proudly showed his picture of a light glowing on a shop table -- a happy memento of the occasion.

1941 accomplishment

Standing under those same lights at the open house, Joanna Proctor is proudly showing off a prior accomplishment -- her first-grade report card, from 1941.

She said she doesn't remember a lot about the school, not her teachers or the outhouse the children used, but her schooling at Kage did pave the way to a 30-year teaching career.

"I remember the school building, kind of, and I remember the desks, how they were hooked together, and I just remember our Christmas program, and I wore a little blue velvet dress, but why I remember that, I don't even know," Proctor said.

After Kage School, Proctor attended the training school, which is now the nursing building at Southeast Missouri State University, and from there graduated from College High School in 1952.

Proctor said it took awhile to complete her education, even teaching a year in Germany when her husband was deployed.

"After five different college and universities, I stayed on the same major, elementary (education). I finished at Carbondale in 1964. So from finishing high school in 1952, it took me 12 years. I always tell kids, 'Don't despair, just keep going,'" Proctor said.

For more information on the schoolhouse, visit hetzelproperties.net.

smaue@semissourian.com

388-3644