WEATHERLY -- A group in Carbon County raised enough money to buy an old school in Weatherly.
A lot is about to change with the Mrs. Charles M. Schwab School building in Weatherly. For starters, it will soon no longer belong to a bank but to the borough.
Back in May, Weatherly Mayor Tom Connors started the effort to save this century-old school.
A nonprofit was formed and it took just seven months to raise the $50,000 needed to buy back a piece of Weatherly history.
"A lot of people were alumni who went to this school, they might have had a mother who taught at the school. Some people from out of town, some people from out of state, when they heard the story, they wanted to help us save this building," said Mayor Connors.
For many in and around Weatherly, the strong connection to this school is knowing the love story behind it.
In 1901, the school was given to the people of Weatherly by billionaire Charles Schwab as a present to his wife's hometown.
"It was a gift to the people of the town and then it got taken out of our hands in the 90s, and then the people came together and took it back," said Connors.
The borough sold the building after a new school was built to comply with handicap accessibility laws.
The new owner let the building deteriorate, a hard sight for people in the borough to see. So when this building was put up for sale last year, the people of Weatherly were determined to get it back and they did.
Now, the goal is to turn this old school into a community center.
"I graduated here in 1979, that tells you how old I am. But I had a lot of good memories here. I remember in its day this was a beautiful building. It still is. It needs a little bit of work, but we are willing to do that," said Joe Sybert.
Now that the school is back in the hands of the people of Weatherly, the next step is to restore it. That process is expected to start in the spring.