Childrens Farm Home Old School

October 2010 | Corvallis, OR

  • The restored facade of the old school, viewed from the south west.
  • The restored facade of the Old School building, viewed from the north west.
  • One of the side entry porches after restoration.
  • An entry porch at the Old School, prior to the restoration work. The building had been unused for several years and had become highly deteriorated.
  • The main entry to the old school after the restoration.
  • For this project, we had the unique opportunity to have copies of the architects original drawings from 1925. These were very helpful in guiding the restoration in situations where features had been removed in later remodels. This is the ground floor plan from the original architect's drawings.

The Children’s Farm Home is a mental health and behavioral therapy facility operated by Trillium Family Services. The facility is located on 300 acres of farm land outside Corvallis, and provides children with therapies including recreation, equine and canine therapy and cottage style living.

Originally constructed in 1925, the Old School is the iconic image of the Farm Home, but due to deterioration and high maintenance costs, it had been unused since the 1980’s. The recently completed exterior restoration was intended to stabilize the building against further deterioration, as well as restoring the original grandeur of its facade. The repairs included a new roof and improved site- and foundation-drainage. We restored all of the windows in the building. Where possible, we repaired and kept the original windows. Were the original windows were too deteriorated to repair, we replaced them with new windows that matched the appearance of the originals as close as possible, but also added the benefits of energy efficiency and more durable finishes.

In the next phase, the interior of the building will be remodeled. The building will provide a public face for the Farm Home (including a museum, gift-shop and public meeting spaces) as well as the gateway for children and their families when coming to the Farm Home for treatment.

For this project, we had the unique opportunity of having copies of the original architect’s drawings from 1925. These were very helpful in guiding the restoration in situations where features had been removed in later remodels.