The pandemic was a challenging and uncertain time for everyone. While many people emerged from lockdowns with new hobbies, recipes or a fresh perspective on life, some took even bigger steps.
In the summer of 2021, as America was slowly getting back to normal, Stacie Grissom and her husband, Sean, decided to make a big change. After spending a decade in New York City, they knew they wanted to move back to Indiana. They were in the market for a quirky house and waited for the right opportunity to present itself.
When it finally did, they took a leap of faith and purchased a nearly 10,000-square-foot historic schoolhouse in their hometown of Franklin.
The schoolhouse, named Union Joint Graded School No. 9, was built in the early 1900s to serve the children from the farthest corners of two neighboring townships of Nineveh and Franklin. It was believed that a joint-graded school would give the students a better education than the traditional system of one-room schoolhouses. It housed students from grades one through eight.
After a few decades the school was proving to be expensive and difficult to maintain. It was shut down and the students were sent to attend school at Hopewell, Trafalgar, and Nineveh.
Following its closure, the building found new, unconventional uses. It served as apple storage for a local farmer, a gathering place for neighborhood kids, and even a turkey coop. Since 1956 it was home to generations of a Franklin family who began the process of converting it into a residence. However, it hit the market with a massive amount of work needed.
Purchasing the schoolhouse sight unseen, but with assurance from her experienced parents, was the easy part; the real challenge was yet to come.
“The toughest part was Sean, my husband, who is in medicine – and I am an English major – we have always been pretty handy, but construction is a whole different game,” Grissom says. “My dad has worked in commercial real estate his whole career so he knew who to hire. I’ve learned so much from him. I have so much respect for all the folks who worked on the school with us.”
Multiple contractors and tradesmen were brought in to ensure the construction was done with care and precision. Almost everything had to be cleaned, remodeled or updated to make the school into a modern and comfortable living space. For instance, the entire roof was replaced as well as every window, and stairways were erected where they didn’t exist before – and that’s just a small sampling.
Throughout the process they were determined to keep as many of the original components as possible, however. This is evident by features such as the exposed brick throughout the interior and the original classroom doors that were painstakingly restored.
The project demanded countless hours of hard work, but every challenge was worth it. By September 2024, the family had officially moved in.
Although this was essentially a complete remodel, the Grissom family was very aware of the history the school held within the community and wanted to preserve the legacy for future generations.
“We’re just really thankful that this little school has survived when so many historic buildings have been torn down,” Grissom says. “Obviously we’re sentimental, but history reminds us where we came from. When things like this get torn down, history feels a little bit erased. I have so much more respect for the Johnson County Museum of History and all the work that they do. We can go there and find a bunch of stories about the school with pictures. There is a lot of local history there, so anybody can do that about their house.”
Moving from New York City back to Indiana amid a pandemic is stressful enough, but couple that with restoring an old schoolhouse, and the stress is unquantifiable. Luckily they had a strong community and family surrounding them to help them get through the tough and frustrating days.
“This is our hometown,” Grissom says. “I think that is what got us through the hard days, just being with family and being a part of this community.”
Even though they’ve moved in, that does not mean the renovation is complete. The decor continues to evolve, and Grissom is collaborating with local salvage companies to incorporate furniture from schools and municipal buildings, staying true to the schoolhouse’s history.
For Stacie Grissom and her family, this project has been a crash course in construction project management and community building. Yet, through all the challenges they have every reason to be proud. Taking on a project of this scale and seeing it through successfully is no small feat. Their determination and work ethic are a testament to what can be accomplished when thinking outside the box.
If you would like more information about Union Joint Graded School No. 9 or the renovation project, visit schoolhousehomestead.com.
