Avery family farmhouse to house NASA offices

by JILL MAHON

Enterprise reporter

Plans are in the works to put the once-bustling dairy farmhouse in front of the Lorain County Joint Vocational School on Rt. 58 to good use again.

According to JVS assistant superintendent John Nolan, the NASA CORE offices currently housed in the school "take up valuable space in the facility" and will be moved to the downstairs level of the house. Further plans include another addition to the structure of a 60x40 ft. warehouse to be built by JVS construction trades classes in the summer of 2010. Half the project's funding will be provided by the federal government and NASA.

"This will make more room for the technology department," Nolan said. "They need more room for their facilities and also we need some more space for classrooms internally."

The farmhouse sits directly on the southwest corner of the JVS property and was once home to the Avery family, back when Rt. 58 was nothing more than a dirt road. It was built in 1903 on nearly 135 acres in Pittsfield Township inherited by Floyd Avery from his father. Enterprise columnist Les Avery was not yet born when his grandfather Floyd died of pneumonia in 1921, but he still has vivid memories from his childhood on the farm in the 1930s. His grandmother Cora remarried hired worker Clarence Stevens in 1923 and the two continued to run the farm successfully for many years.

"I remember thrashing days at the farm when boards were placed on saw horses in the yard becoming tables which abounded with unbelievable amounts of food for the thrashers who came from all around to harvest the crops. The outbuildings were a large barn directly behind the house. The horses and cows were housed there. A tool shed was south of the main farm house and that shed also served as a workshop. In fairly close proximity to the tool shed was the outdoor privy -- a two holer," Avery said.

He said just north of the back door was the milk house which was immaculate, and of course was used to separate the cream from the milk and to transfer the milk into large milk cans that were then wheeled to the road on a milk cart and picked up and carried to Wellington.

"In the early days, outside the back door was a hand pump with a tin cup attached, from which everyone drank. Later, the pump was moved inside and was over the kitchen sink. A breakfast nook was north of the kitchen and there children ate at family gatherings, while the adults ate in the dining room right off the kitchen," he explained.

"The living room I remember as warm and cozy with a bearskin rug by grandpa's chair. A parlor used only for special company was north of the living room. It was always kept clean and neat just in case company arrived other than family. The upstairs was off limits and I have no recall of what was there, except I knew that is where grandma and grandpa slept," Avery said.

According to research by JVS employee Tina Salyer, the future of the land was up in the air after Cora's death in 1960, but was settled when founding superintendent of the Lorain County JVS Bill Burton made a deal with Clarence in 1969 to purchase the land for the school.

Nolan said he hopes the upcoming move will give NASA CORE greater exposure in the community and make people more aware of the viable partnership between the group and the JVS.

NASA CORE director Renee Elias said the organization has been distributing educational materials on state and national level from their location inside the JVS since 1987 and will be excited to have the extra space.

The group works with job training classes at the school to provide groups of special needs students with the skills they will use when they enter the workforce after graduation.

"It's a unique situation we have here at the JVS because we are the only office in the world that does what we do. Over the years we have sent out millions of materials," Elias said. "The special needs kids we work with are literally gaining all kinds of soft skills as well as the hard skills that will prepare them for jobs. Not only that, but a lot of these kids haven't been exposed to any kind of information related to what NASA does. By seeing everything that comes through like science information, space shuttle and international space shuttle missions, earth science and aeronautics, they are exposed to a wide variety of really great information."

She explained the NASA CORE office is the lead distribution center for NASA education resource centers located in all 50 states, but also provides materials to local organizations.

"We support all kinds of teacher training workshops and have made contact with all the school districts within Lorain County to provide their libraries with materials," she said. "The items are also used in classrooms to supplement curriculum and to teach kids about math, science, technology and engineering. The main goal of our project is to inspire students to pursue careers in those areas, which makes it a perfect fit that we're here at the JVS."

The upcoming renovations and construction due to take place will do more than just allow NASA CORE and the kids who work in the distribution center to have a little more elbow room as they collate, count, package and prepare materials for shipping; it will preserve a little piece of local history as well.