If Alna's 1870s Village School at Puddle Dock at the corner of Dock and Head Tide roads was not a historic building, it would have been gutted, dry-walled and gotten a hardwood floor, Christopher Cooper said. Other than a stapled-on security system, the town neglected the building for 30 years, Cooper said.

His 12 years as selectman were based there when the former school was the town office. "I spent 12 years at this table, and in this room," he said about a table he plans to fix up to be the board's table at the new town office. The town will leave a Route 218 cape that has been the town office several years and move into a modular behind it.

Now for $35 an hour, Cooper is fixing up the old school building. The project is a renovation-restoration hybrid, he said. The town aims to reopen the building for new uses, to be determined. Second Selectman Ed Pentaleri said suggestions have ranged from holding family musical gatherings to housing a modest library or the post office.

"Of course, having initially served as a classroom, the space is quite flexible, and could conceivably be adapted to many, many uses," Pentaleri wrote in a Sept. 13 email response. "Some others that one might imagine include community meeting space, presentation or gallery space, or even a place that people might want to meet for a weekly game night, or to practice yoga, for example.

"The Puddledock School is one of the historic buildings in Alna that really contributes to the community’s rural charm. It’s really great to have people expressing an interest in using the building because with its use the community will become more invested in its maintenance and upkeep so that it will be a part of the community for years to come," he wrote.

Outside, Cooper explained what the building means to him. "Look at it. It's the quintessential, 19th century one-room schoolhouse ... It's been a school, a town office. It's got the lives of people wrapped up into it. Part of my soul is in this building. It's a grand building," he added.

In front of it, a pile of long fluorescent lights awaited removal from the property. They were installed after his time on the board, Cooper said. He said he and Alna's volunteer archivist Doreen Conboy went with recessed, dimmable lights and are restoring two globe lights from the building's school years to put back in the schoolroom.

Work has been under way near the steps, but 95 percent of the project is interior, he said. The siding will be replaced another year, he said.

Inside, the schoolroom's trim is original except a section he redid above a chalkboard.

He expects to shave his last bill to the town considerably, because the building needed so much work and he wanted to do it right. "Everything you get into here is worse than you thought: Rougher, cruder, more rotten. So you can either say, 'That's OK, I'll paint it. Or you can say, 'I couldn't possibly paint that, it's too crappy.' So I'll replace it, I'll repair it, I'll make it smooth."

The old oak map case will move out of storage and back onto a wall. The original hangers have been found, Cooper said.

He said he and Conboy, whose husband Joe Barth went to the school, care about the building and are bringing it back. He praised selectmen for giving the town's historic buildings attention.