School's Out: Old Silvana Schoolhouse Lists For $695K

Want to go back and relive that without having to deal with teachers, classmates, tests, and homework? Buy a schoolhouse and refresh the smell of chalkboards, or whiteboards depending on when you graduated. The Old Silvana Schoolhouse is up for sale, and not for the first time. Some time along the line a creative person bought it and decided to essentially build a village around it. Now, for $695,000, you get the 3,300 square foot schoolhouse that has 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths; and on the rest of the two acres are a saloon, church, greenhouse, parking for at least 60 cars. They changed it from schoolyard into event venue, and did it in vintage style.

The main building was built in 1900. The rest of the outbuildings are a collection bought from other creative people, mostly done in a rustic, and functional style. The real style, though, comes from what had to be an epic journey of antiquing finding vintage lights, chandeliers, and doors from throughout the state from Gas Works Park to Ellensburg to Soap Lake. One of the original pieces was the school bell and the bell tower.

The grounds include a hedge of hundreds of arborvitae, effectively providing plenty of privacy. Inside the borders are fruit trees, and ground as flat as you'd expect in a flood plain. Gardens, a paved pad for dancing, a space for a band, there's enough room for almost any kind of outdoor party you have in mind, or someone else has in mind - for the right fee. There are even cages for resident rabbits and peacocks. Any other critters get to fend for themselves.

Inside there's an opportunity to recreate the space because they never quite got around to defining it. You get to play with 17 foot ceilings, a few walls sheetrocked and painted, a few walls that are studs and insulation. It's big. It's square. It's full of stories. They actually did quite a bit of work on the building; particularly, you can appreciate the foundation work it took to raise the building above the 100 year flood plain line. One benefit, you'll have the highest building in town and a clock tower to view it all from.
· The Old Silvana Schoolhouse [TOSS]
· 22824 Pioneer Hwy, Stanwood [Estately]
Written by Tom Trimbath