Could This Be the Place?



This sweet little house on Federal Highway would make a perfect little pre-school. The two lots to the south of it are planted with frangipani trees. There's a huge mango tree to the left of the frame and as you can see, there's quite a bit of shade. This is very important, as everyone in South Florida knows. If you have shade, you can be outside on even the hottest day and not suffer. And my vision is of a pre-school where children can spend a lot of their time outside, not just a half hour in the morning and a half hour in the afternoon. That is not enough. I'm looking into the possibility of buying this little house. So stay tuned...

Hold On...

Fewer postings lately don't mean this isn't happening! It just means things are on hold for a few months while I look for the right property. We need a space that is in a commercial or mixed-use zone and also one that has four or more parking spaces and a large enough outdoor space. And...the outdoor space must have at least one mature tree.

One possibility is 818 North Federal Highway, which the bank just foreclosed on. It should be back on the market in a few months, but will likely be a cash-only sale. There are other possibilities, and I'll be watching the listings to see if any would work. So... check back periodically if you're interested, or e-mail me at margaretmenge@yahoo.com. I'd love to hear from you.

New location

The deeper I got into county health regulations and city building codes and the more I thought about the kind of space we need for this special little school, the more I realized that there was just too much that needed to be changed at the church (floor, ceiling, walls, yard) And that even with an unlimited budget, we could not create the kind of space there that I was envisioning in a few months time. I talked to Pastor Dillon and he understood.

So now.... I'm going to work towards buying a building early next year that has some more elements that we need: great floors, a shaded yard and parking. I've been looking at this building, below, for many months, and just recently realized it might work for a pre-school. I went over to look inside today and low and behold, the realtor tells me it was a school in the 70s. So boy. That's great. I would just need $170,000 or so in cash to buy it as a bank won't finance it given that it needs a new roof. So, ok. This poses a challenge. But there must be a way.

Could this be the location of our new pre-school?
It has a lovely shaded yard, and a teacher apartment attached in back.

Zoning Approved!

The city of Lake Worth's zoning department has signed off on our establishing a school at Calvary United Methodist Church, saying the 1979 letter found in the building file proved that the church had been given approval to establish a school, and that other documents provided evidence that the building was used as a school. So that's great. Now we just have to go through the city's building department, the county fire department and the county health department. These are going to be harder.

Old Blueprints Tell Interesting Stories

Calvary United Methodist Church, as seen from First Avenue South

I told the city of Lake Worth last week, in the course of making a case for allowing a school at Calvary United Methodist Church without having to seek a Special Land Use Approval, that the classroom we'll be using is one of several classrooms added on to the church building intended as a school and used as a school at various points.

But this wasn't the whole story, I realize now, and not the strongest argument.

In looking over old blueprints over the last few days, I realized that the old church building on the corner of First Avenue South and Ocean Breeze included many classrooms and other areas that constituted a school. So it's not that there was a school added on to the back of this beautiful historic church in mid-century. The school was part of the original building. This building was meant to house a school!

The school must have been going strong, because in 1953 many more classrooms were added. In blueprints from the 1990s, a total of 10 rooms are marked as classrooms, in addition to a nursery, an office (a school office, presumably), a fellowship hall, kitchen, rec hall, 'heritage room,' library and chapel. This is a full-blown school, for sure! It just hasn't been used as a school in a very long time -- since 1980, as far as I could tell from sifting through the building file.

Verdict: The Tree Must Come Down

Tree expert number two was out to look at the eucalyptus tree in the back yard of the church today and said without a doubt, it needs to be chopped down.

 

The tree, said arborist Patrick Snyder (in pic below) has been dying for a very, very long time, and needs to be cut down to the stump. And this is not going to be a small job, I could see as he measured the trunk. It's more than four feet in diameter. The nice thing, he noted, is that once the tree comes down, we have a blank slate.

 

Yes, I said, and we plan to fill it with trees and paths and a garden and a sandbox and so many things. The eucalyptus branches can be borders for sandy paths and can be used to build a sandbox. And the tree trunk can be sliced and used for stairs, or as part of a foot path. Who needs pavers?

 

 

 

This Might Really Work!

Step One with the City of Lake Worth is to determine whether we are even allowed to put a school in the church...whether this is in compliance with the city's zoning code. If there wasn't some record of an approval for a school, then we would have to pay $1550 for a Special Land Use Aprroval, and go before the city's Zoning Board to request this.

But lo and behold, in going through the building file for the church yesterday at the city's offices, I found a letter dated September 12, 1979 from the city's Zoning Board of Appeals notifying the church of unanimous approval for a day care center. There is also correspondence in the file from 1980 referencing a school that was meeting at the church, called the Troywood Videam School.

So, things look very good. We don't know for sure yet. But it sounds like the city may be ok with a school returning to Calvary United Methodist Church. The next stop then would be the building department. I expect some snags there, or challenges, as we may have to make changes to parking spaces and doors to comply with city codes. That could get pricey.