High School Students Build House as Teaching Project, 1971

“House Built as Teaching Project to be Auctioned June 5” by Robert Helmle in The Yancey Record, May 27, 1971

A very special house, which probably has set records for Yancey County in the number of people who worked on its construction, in the long time it took to build, and in the painstaking construction involved, is being offered for sale by the Yancey County Board of Education. It will be auctioned off at the Courthouse door at 10 a.m. on the fifth of June.

The house may further be described as well-designed and beautifully situated. It is the house that has been under construction as a teaching project by the vocational education department of the Cane River High School. It is located a quarter of a mile west of the Cane River bridge on 19E, about 200 yards back from the highway on a short entrance road.

The two vocational teachers who have been chiefly responsible for the project are Jack Buckner and Flay Hensley. Throughout the two years the house has been under construction, the emphasis has been on teaching quality workmanship in all the various building skills. This reporter for the Yancey Record was impressed by the quality of workmanship throughout the building. Others who have inspected it say it must be one of the best built houses in the county.
The house, located on a one-acre site, is approximately 2,000 square feet. It has three bedrooms, one and a half baths, living room, family room, dining room and kitchen. The main rooms are attractively paneled in elm and birch, and the cabinets are of walnut.
Water supply is from a well that yields 10 or more gallons a minute. The house has a full basement with eight-foot ceiling.

The plans for the house were drawn as an instruction project, with much guidance, we are told, by Mr. Buckner. The project has been largely financed by a loan from the Northwestern Bank, the money being used to buy the site and materials. Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay off the bank loan, and the balance used to get another such project under way. Superintendent Landrum Wilson has expressed the view that a house building project of this sort can be started every two years.
Further details regarding the auction of the house have appeared in advertisements in recent issues of the Yancey Record. Any additional information may be obtained from the School Superintendent’s office.