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> People Who Like To Screw Around With Fixing Up Old Buildings and Other
Things
> Including Historic Latrines and Stained Glass Lamp Shades
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> ][<en

Speaking of latrines-

About two years ago the ruling class in my little town (Alna, Me. pop. 550,
after a big meal), which I am ashamed to say includes myself (known locally
as the eminence grease for the way everything slides downhill after I
become involved in a project) decided to do something about the approaching
95th anniversary of our being in non-compliance with a state law requiring
that all town documents, current and historical, be stored in a fire and
theft secure manner.

Finally driven to act after the little seed of guilt had finally taken root
after all this time, we first decided to renovate our town hall to make
space for the badly need vault and, while we were at it, a sanitation
facility that does not require an application of lime after each use.

The town hall is located in a c. 1860 schoolhouse, built on a rubble
frostwall. The plan was to put a full foundation under the building with
the vault and loo located in the new basement. After some reasonable
complaints were made by the town clerk and others that having to go
downstairs to the loo was impractical, and would set us up for a new
century of being in non-compliance with the Americans With Disabilities
Act, it was decided instead to locate the loo in a new leanto attached to
the back of the building, on the same footprint as had been occupied by the
venerable segregated pair of two-holers.

When word of this plan got out to the citizenry-at-lodge, there was a
surprising but gratifying outcry at the destruction of our town's last
remaining public low-tech convenience. This rebellion was met by the
Committee circulating a suggestion I made that the old loo be moved to a
corner of the lot and turned into the Loo Museum by filling in the gap left
by removing the structure from its common wall with the schoolhouse with a
sheet of clear acrylic.

The response to this idea was enthusiastic, but the entire project was
abandoned when an 1820s Cape came on the market at a price that the town
could afford.
The plan now is, once the town has removed itself to its new/old premises,
to turn return the schoolhouse to its original state (a matter of removing
a few partition walls and light fixtures), use it as an exhibition space
for town-historical type stuff, and see that the lime bucket is kept filled
at all times.

While the relocation of the offices is certainly a more elegant solution to
our problems, I have to admit that I am sort of sorry to have to abandon
the Loo Museum project, which would have certainly put Alna on the map (at
least competitively with a crossroad about 2 miles town the road in  North
Newcastle, which, thanks to the presence of a rather poorly maintained
dairycow barn, is known, even including a road sign and sweatshirts and
gimme caps available in the crossroads store, as Cowshit Corners).

Question? how does this concept fit in with the recent thread on
Facadectomy? Sort of the opposite, ain't it.

Bruce