Funding of $46,900 was approved for renovations to the historic Snowflake Academy building by the Arizona State Library. The grants were made possible by the Arizona State Legislature’s State Grants-In-Aid program.
The grant, combined with matching contributions from the Snowflake Academy Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to renovating the historically significant building, will be used to make necessary emergency exit egresses to the building needed for it to become the new site of the Snowflake-Taylor Public Library.
Originally called the Snowflake Stake Academy, a brick building was built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1901, but burned to the ground on Thanksgiving in 1910. It was rebuilt out of local sandstone quarried from the site now home to the Snowflake Junior High School football field. It was dedicated by church President and Prophet Joseph F. Smith on Thanksgiving 1913, and continued to provide secondary education for many years.
The keystone placed atop the north facing arch declared the school motto “Self Effort Educates,” which was also evident in the curriculum offered. In 1918, Principal Henry Randolph Atkin boasted that it was home to 190 students studying subjects like “Literature, Current History, Gardening, Dry Farming, Irrigated Farming, Cattle Raising, Pig and Chicken Raising Management, Domestic Arts and Domestic Science.”
Use of the building continued by Snowflake High School in more recent years until it was declared unsafe in 1998, prompting community members to organize the Snowflake Academy Foundation and start restoring the building for future use as the library.
The foundation pledged to raise a minimum of $1 million toward the renovations, and the project received further support in 2006 with approval of a resolution vowing support and collaboration from the Town of Snowflake. That year it also received the support of the Logan Brimhall family, who began making contributions to the renovation with the goal of having part of the building dedicated to their ancestor. Logan Brimhall, father to 13 children, attended the academy as a student in 1918 and later became a well-known teacher, and sometimes bus driver, at Snowflake Union High School until 1947.
A recent quilt show raffle earned $1,908 for the renovation and the foundation has partnered with Amazon Smile, allowing shoppers to make contributions by designating Snowflake Academy Foundation as their charity of choice when buying on the smile.amazon.com site.
