This is a wonderful idea. A nearby school recently closed down--a beautiful old building, huge and stately--and every time we go by it, I wish that someone could buy it and turn it into, well, anything other than an empty building.
posted by mittens at 7:14 AM on June 9 [1 favorite]

At least in the upper midwest US, turning old rural school into an antique shop is pretty commonplace. They're generally leaky, falling apart, and eventually become too poorly maintained to even be an antique shop anymore, but I've been in a lot of them. They're probably the largest non-industrial building in the town, have ample access and parking, and lots of nooks and crannies to put all the things out of the town's basements and attics into, in hopes of attracting big-city deal-seekers hoping to find things that haven't been super picked over already.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:19 AM on June 9 [5 favorites]

My old High School was turned into a Muslim Community Center. They've owned it for at least 20 years, but it's on the market again.
posted by Spike Glee at 7:50 AM on June 9 [1 favorite]

A glimpse of our demographic future.
posted by doctornemo at 7:54 AM on June 9

Our local town tore our one room school house down and put in a bike path.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 9:01 AM on June 9

There's a former highschool here in Ottawa that was transformed into a community hub, with the classrooms mostly turned into office space for community arts organizations and the gym and auditorium turned into a music and arts venue that now books some of the best mid-level touring acts that come through town. It is great to see these buildings repurposed where they can be and the Bronson Center is doing great things. The art classrooms have been repurposed as a day program in the arts for those with various disabilities.

On the other hand, the elementary school in my home town was closed due to dropping enrollment and only about 2 years later, there was a bad winter and they didn't get around soon enough to clear the snow off the flat roof and the whole thing collapsed. It was a pretty structurally sound building up to that point, but a couple of weeks of heavy snowfall that turned to rain is just too heavy for most buildings to hold up under. Had it been in use, they wouldn't have let it build up like that.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:59 AM on June 9 [2 favorites]