Page 28 - Winter 2021

s|∂| ARCHIVES Vinnie’s Vault
Editor’s note: The following is a story about the renovation of an old two-room schoolhouse written by The Oconee Enterprise Publisher Vinnie Williams and published on Sept. 13, 1984.
Oconee couple remodels schoolhouse
By Vinnie Williams
Ben and May Cook live in a little red schoolhouse. It is the old Rose Hill two-room school about six-and-one-half miles from Watkinsville, off Ga. 15, in the Antioch community.
“Ben saw it advertised, we visited and he fell in love with it,” said May. “So we bought it early this summer and began remodeling.”
The Arkansas-born and raised couple have been married for 25 years.
“This is the first time we’ve ever undertaken a project like this though,” said Ben. “We estimate it will take another three years before we finish the remodeling.”
Ben and May settled in Oconee County on Aug. 16, 1983 when Ben got a four-year contract as a senior field engineer for Bendix and was assigned to the Richard B. Russell Research Center at UGA. Ben’s engineering background has come in handy with the schoolhouse project. May said with a laugh, “He has held houses together for us all over the world.”
When a visitor turns off Ga. 15, onto the gravel road leading a few yards up to the schoolhouse, the first impression is, “This is a classic ‘little red schoolhouse,’ and has been lovingly cared for over the years.”
It is dark red, with a belfry tower and white trim. The tin roofline, instead of being steeply pitched, has a gentle upward curve at the ends—“almost Russian in character,” said May. She added, “Someone took lots of care in building this little schoolhouse. They didn’t just throw it together.”
Ben and Mary Cook remodeled the Rose Hill schoolhouse in the summer of 1984.
sVinnie Williams was the owner and publisher of The Oconee Enterprise newspaper in Watkinsville, Ga., and OCONEE THE MAGAZINE. PAGE 26 | OCONEE THE MAGAZINE | WINTER 2021