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George Wilson with one of the cabinets.
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
SCOTTVILLE — Over the past few months, George C. Wilson has been painstakingly restoring three cabinets salvaged from the former Scottville school building. To date, he has completed two of the historic pieces, which will be auctioned during the Spartan Reunion concert on Tuesday, Aug. 18, to benefit the Mason County Central band program.
The reunion will also feature performances by the Mason County Central High School Jazz Band at 6 p.m. and the Scottville Clown Band at 7 p.m. at Mason County Central High School parking lot. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.
The cabinet auction and the sale of bricks salvaged from the historic school building will raise money for the MCC band program. Bricks will be sold for $10 each, and the cabinets will be auctioned during intermission of the Clown Band concert. The MCC Band Boosters will also sell concessions.
Wilson, a Scottville Clown Band street leader and Mason County Central alumnus, obtained the cabinets shortly before the former school was demolished in May. The cabinets had been built into classrooms and required extensive work to remove and transform into freestanding pieces of furniture.
The first completed cabinet had been located in the classroom on the left after entering the school’s front door. Wilson recalled it as Mrs. Young’s classroom when he attended school there 52 years ago.
The cabinet was in poor condition when it was removed, Wilson said. Its original doors were missing, though the original latch keeps remained.
“It’s now a farm pantry cabinet,” Wilson said.
The restored cabinet measures 68 5/8 inches wide, 64 1/2 inches tall and 12 7/8 inches deep. Wilson used period-correct antique hardware and paired the original latch keeps with salvaged antique latches.
The replacement doors were constructed from heart pine beadboard that had originally served as shutters on a Victorian lakefront cottage in Oceana County.
Wilson tested the cabinet for lead paint. Areas where lead was present were sealed with polyurethane. He selected colors intended to closely resemble the cabinet’s pre-1900 paint and applied the latex topcoat with a dry-brush technique to imitate decades of wear.
The second completed cabinet was originally built into a second-floor classroom on the north side of the school. During the mid-1970s, before the district sold the building, the room served as the school’s health science classroom.
The cabinet stood along the south wall near a passageway leading to the biology classroom.
“Liberating it from that position was a challenge,” Wilson said.
The cabinet was too large to remove from the room and carry down the stairway in one piece. Wilson had to separate its upper and lower sections before it could be taken from the building.
He thanked Andy Kmetz, Mason County treasurer and Mason County Land Bank Authority chair, for helping secure access to the building and assisting with the removal of the three cabinets.
Wilson determined from the materials used in its construction that the second cabinet likely dates to the 1940s. Its drawers have plywood bottoms, and the quality of its construction indicates that it was likely built by an experienced woodworker or finish carpenter.
Wilson said it is possible that the cabinet was built by Coach Anderson, who coached football and taught shop at Scottville High School following World War II, perhaps with assistance from his students. However, no documentation has been located to confirm who built it.
The restored step-back cabinet features a Scottville and MCC blue-and-gold paint scheme with natural wood doors and drawers. Because the cabinet was originally built into crooked walls, Wilson preserved some of its imperfections rather than attempting to make the doors sit perfectly.
“They sit naturally, a little off perfect, as they did before the cabinet was removed,” he said.
All the glass in the upper doors had been broken. Wilson obtained vintage window glass and cut it to fit the four-pane divided-light doors.
Significant rebuilding was required to convert the former built-in cabinet into a freestanding piece. Wilson used vintage, period-appropriate materials and hardware. One board on the back of the lower cabinet bears the words “Scottville M,” written in blue carpenter’s pencil. Wilson preserved the marking.
The cabinet had not originally been painted. However, Wilson said the amount of repair work and the number of wood patches required him to paint portions of the case so the repairs would blend together.
The chalk-paint finish was scuffed to suggest decades of use.
“There is no point in trying to make a cabinet like this look like it did when it was new,” Wilson said.
The cabinet is 87.5 inches wide and has an overall height of 81 inches. The bottom section is 24.5 inches deep and 35.5 inches tall. The upper section is 16.5 inches deep and 45.75 inches tall.
Antique brackets join the two sections, allowing the top to be removed for transportation. Wilson said the large cabinet could be used as a kitchen pantry, back bar, sideboard, display cabinet or library cabinet.
The Scottville Clown Band acquired the cabinets and bricks through an agreement with the Mason County Land Bank Authority. The band, a 501(c)(3) organization, will donate all proceeds from their sale to the MCC band program.
The relationship between the Clown Band and Scottville’s schools dates back decades. When the town band reorganized following World War II, Scottville school superintendent Arnold O. Carlson helped Raymond Schulte recruit high school musicians. Schulte formally named the group the Scottville Clown Band in 1947.
Carlson also recruited Wilson’s father, George F. “Big George” Wilson, to serve as street leader. The elder Wilson began leading the band while he was a Scottville High School junior in 1947 and continued in that role until his death in 2012.
George C. Wilson and his siblings later attended classes in the same building when it served as Scottville Junior High School.
The Tuesday, Aug. 18 Spartan Reunion is intended to bring together MCC alumni and other members of the community while supporting current and future student musicians. The event will also offer attendees an opportunity to meet new MCC Superintendent Jeff Tuka and new high school Principal Brian Dotson. The event is not exclusive to just MCC alumni.
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