Construction could begin next year on a plan to significantly expand an iconic and historic school in Snowmass Village, Colorado.
Opened in 1894, the Little Red Schoolhouse is located at 4598 Owl Creek Road and has served as an operating school facility for generations of area residents.
The wood-framed building is topped by a bell tower on a site that also includes a rear one-story wooden garage and has in recent years served as the home to a childcare and early childhood education center.
No matter what its function, the much-photographed building has remained a residential and tourist favorite, reminiscent of an era when such structures, beginning in the early 19th century, served as the primary educational facilities in small communities across the country.
Now a plan is underway to expand the Snowmass site with a 7,500-square-foot, two-story structure to the rear of the school that will house up to five classrooms, office and lobby space, a laundry room, and kitchen.
The old schoolhouse itself, according to plans, will be repurposed for community space purposes with a library, science center, and music area.
The Denver-based Alan Ford Architects has been brought in as project designer.
The project is expected to cost around $8 million to complete and will be funded out of the Snowmass Village’s unreserved fund balance for fiscal year 2025.
A columnist for Vermont’s Brattleboro Reformer newspaper in 1916 noted that all little red schoolhouses, as well as barns, were reflective of New England thriftiness as “red was the cheapest kind of paint.”
By Garry Boulard
