Snowflake resident David Flake addressed the Snowflake Town Council at the Oct. 2 Town Council meeting regarding the need to finish the Snowflake Academy restoration project that was started more than 10 years ago.
Flake joined the Academy Foundation in 2008, with more than $1 million dollars raised to remodel the academy into a modern public library.
In a later interview, Flake shared that the money was spent on the lower floor as well as updating and modernizing the handicap access with ramps. New front steps were put in and an elevator that accesses all three floors.
Flake estimates that to finish the job will cost approximately $2 million more. “The town has talked about bonding both the Academy and the swimming pool in order to do all the repairs and restoration necessary.” Two different bond elections failed in the early 2000s, but Flake is confident that the economy could handle it now and is hoping the town will try again.
The Snowflake Academy was only in operation for 36 years, starting in 1888 until 1924, when it was closed in favor of a public high school. But during those 36 years there was a rich history of people working to give their children an education in the Wild West.
According to Flake those 36 years can be broken down into three distinct periods. The first period, from 1888 to 1898, included receiving a charter and holding six years of ungraded class work, followed by the closure for four years due to lack of funds.
The second period, from 1898 to 1910, featured the arrival of Joseph Peterson, the first college-trained principal/teacher who got the school going again and saw the completion of the large building with major additions that was destroyed in a fire in November of 1910.
The third period, 1910 to 1924, saw the community rally to keep the school going and rebuild the destroyed building in three years, this time with stone instead of brick.
Flake remembers when he went to high school in the building. The bottom floor of the Academy was where the biology and agriculture science was taught. The middle floor was the auditorium and band room, the top floor was the chemistry and home economics. The next building is where the high school principal had his office and the old swimming pool was the gymnasium.
Flake said, “In 1999, the Snowflake High School decided that the academy building was out-moded. They were going to bulldoze the building down. Snowflake public said, ‘No that is a historical treasure.’ It was turned over to the city who bought the entire part of the lower high school block including the gymnasium which became the town swimming pool.”
For now, the Snowflake Academy is open during the Pioneer Days for the quilt show and boutique, waiting for the day it will be fully restored.
In his appeal to the board, Flake noted that a number of the pioneer buildings have been remodeled. “It has put Snowflake on the map as being a historical-minded town. The completion of the Academy is going to be the capstone on this historical venture and it remains to be done. I am anxious to see something happen to cause this to come about. We want to see this building restored and I think we owe it to our pioneer forefathers to see it done.”
To bring attention to the project, in 2013 Flake published a book about the history behind the Snowflake Academy titled: An Academy in the Wilderness.
