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Venersborg flush with Generosity

Community steps up to add bathroom to schoolhouse

By Laura McVicker
Published: February 3, 2010, 12:00am
3 Photos
Venersborg Community Center volunteers, from left, Kristen McHenry, holding 4-year-old Grady McHenry, B.J.
Venersborg Community Center volunteers, from left, Kristen McHenry, holding 4-year-old Grady McHenry, B.J. Schulte and Kristine White show off the latest addition to the one-room schoolhouse in this tiny town east of Battle Ground: an indoor bathroom. Photo Gallery

VENERSBORG — There was definitely something missing at the historic one-room schoolhouse in this community.

After groans and a few snickers over the years, the ladies of the Venersborg Community Club started a “flush fund,” as they called it, to pay for the fundamental modern amenity.

It took 18 months of bake sales, potlucks, raffles and other community fundraisers, but the much-needed addition will make its debut at this year’s Sweetheart’s Dance.

So if you need to relieve yourself, it’s there in the back of the schoolhouse, in an add-on room where the back porch used to be.

And it should make things more convenient, said Kristine White, community club volunteer, for dance patrons who used to have to shuffle outside every couple hours to use one of the two outhouses, one labeled “Ladies” and the other “Gents.”

“We heard several people say, ‘It would be nice if you actually had a bathroom,’” White said, gesturing in dismay on a recent afternoon at the weathered outhouses. “It just makes it easier to use the building.”

This is the second year the schoolhouse, in the unincorporated town fives miles east of Battle Ground, will host the Sweetheart’s Dance. Last year’s dance served as one of many fundraisers to pay the $12,000 needed for the indoor bathroom.

There’s already been a sneak preview of the john. At a November potluck, a few community members took it for a test drive and were pleased to find it worked just fine, White said, noting there was “just a general appreciation” of it.

Besides the November potluck and February dance, the schoolhouse stays busy throughout the year as the town’s community center, serving as a popular venue for family reunions, wedding receptions, Boy Scout meetings, birthday parties and ice cream socials.

The building is the oldest continuously used community center in Washington and the last intact one-room schoolhouse in Clark County. It’s listed on state and national historic registers.

Despite many years sans toilet, the 1912 schoolhouse has operated efficiently and seen few upgrades — most of those have been the work of volunteers donating time and materials.

Community club members said they were amazed by an outpouring of donations that came after publicity of last year’s dance. Many people who read about the fundraising effort pitched in $5, $10 or $100 for the cause. Even the former owner of the Venersborg Store who now lives in Arizona sent money.

“I just got the figures for (the bathroom), and it’s like, ‘Where did we get the money?’” said B.J. Schulte, vice president of the community club.

Other, smaller renovations have come over time. Last fall, a local boy built a ramp for his Eagle Scout project to make the building wheelchair accessible. Another Boy Scout remodeled the entry with single-pane double doors.

The ceiling will receive a paint job before the dance, White said, and the bathroom needs a few touch-ups, namely outdoor siding.

And how about those old outhouses?

“We’ll keep them to remember where we used to be,” White said, laughing. “And I guess if someone’s driving by they can still use them.”

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