November brought great change to the Greenspring Montessori campus. Our new building, now named Emerson Village, was completed and our faculty and staff were eager to move in. Over Veteran’s Day weekend, an amazing crew of our staff and parent volunteers helped to move eleven classrooms and seven offices around campus. Three of our Children’s House classrooms and all five of our Toddler classrooms moved into the new Village; our two Lower Elementary classrooms moved across the street to Little Barn; our Upper Elementary moved to the Student Activity Center; our Training Center and all of our administrative offices previously located in the Main Building were squeezed in to various places around campus. We are truly loving our new spaces and the children are excited to explore their new classrooms.
This is truly a momentous occasion that is only possible because of the generosity and love of our extended Greenspring community. To see our parents, grandparents, students, faculty, and staff come together to complete this mission has sparked our enthusiasm once more. In mid-November, the second phase of our Capital Project began with renovations to our Main Building. This building was part of the original Emerson Dairy Farm over one hundred years ago. Our mission is to preserve this historic charm, while also making classrooms spaces specifically designed for each level. The Main Building will contain two Toddler classrooms, two Children’s House classrooms, a village kitchen, our new adult Training Center, and most of our administrative offices.
Already, we are beginning to see progress. The upstairs of the Main Building, once home to our Upper and Lower Elementary classrooms, has been gutted down to the original wood beams and on the main floor all of the walls between the classrooms have been removed. Looking into the windows of the building, it once more resembles a dairy barn.
In December, the construction crews will be working to continue the demolition of existing windows, doors, and drywall, as well as prep the foundation of the building for plumbing and new support beams.
