Old classroom becomes new home

(Photo by Kris Todd) Former Spencer Middle School English teacher Cheryl Hurst, left, and her mother, Lois Beck, look out the windows of what will be Beck's new apartment. The downtown Spencer dwelling used to be Hurst's classroom. [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Eager to move Friday afternoon into her brand new apartment in the former Spencer Middle School building, she's already splurged on a new television set to accentuate the space's open floor plan. She's also purchased a Christmas tree, which she plans to proudly display in her dwelling's large set of windows next holiday season.

Beck will formally claim the space as her own when her Candlewick and Copenhagen Christmas plates, and the cup and saucer collection started years ago by her mother-in-law are placed in her daughter's former classroom. Cheryl Hurst, Beck's daughter, taught English in the same room that has now been remodeled into her mother's apartment.

As the mother and daughter toured the space which will be Beck's apartment Monday morning, the Clay County native excitedly made mental lists about what to move where while familiarizing herself with her new home's every nook and cranny.

(Photo by Kris Todd) Community Housing Initiatives Property Manager Brittany Spieker presents Lois Beck with a key to her new apartment in the former Spencer Middle School (SMS) building. Spieker, a former SMS student who attended classes in Beck's daughter's classroom, has stayed busy the last few weeks showing the building's 16 newly-constructed residential units to potential dwellers. [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

But as Hurst entered the residential unit, she envisioned her former classroom and what would have been part of Gary Kuiper's math classroom next door. Her blackboard was positioned where her mother's front door with peephole is now located and student desks once occupied what is now a kitchen. As she entered the room which will now serve as her mother's bedroom, Hurst grew quiet before relaying, "Beneath her window is right where I always had my desk."

As the retired SMS teacher walked over to her mother's large living room windows overlooking East Fourth Street, she smiled. The space between two of the three sets of windows is where the wall divided the two teachers' classrooms.

"There was a little space where you could pass notes between my room and Mr. Kuiper's room," Hurst revealed. " ... Every once in a while Mr. Kuiper would pass a note over to me and I'd pass one back. A couple times, students would do it. Mr. Kuiper and I had a lot of fun with that."

The two neighboring teachers would also place quarter bets with one another on whether or not school would dismiss early. Hurst would usually base her bet on whether she could see Spencer's water tower from her classroom window.

"Long after we retired, he saw me in Carroll's Bakery and paid for my doughnuts," she said with a smile.

Besides living in her old classroom, the daughter also likes that her mother will be able to walk downstairs from her new dwelling and visit other people in Spencer's newly-relocated senior center.

"That will be so nice," Hurst said. "And, it'll be nice for her to be able to walk to the library, Fareway, Carroll's Bakery and for me to call her up and say, 'Let's meet at the Chinese place (Chen's Garden) for lunch,' and she can walk right over. That will be fun."

The 86-year-old woman, meanwhile, thinks her apartment's location will be handy for Dinner Date, which she volunteers to help with each Monday and Friday. Since her new dwelling will be located on the floor above Spencer's senior center, Beck is also planning to eat at the Spencer Area Activity Center (SAAC) more often now. Her new home's handy location will also allow her to volunteer more at the SAAC, she said.