Mentor High students help renovate historic Mooreland Mansion deck - The News-Herald
Mooreland Mansion on the Lakeland Community College Campus is a historic Lake County landmark.
This spring, a group of high school students have been helping preserve that history as the site has been serving as a hands-on learning lab for those studying the construction trades.
According to a Lakeland Foundation update, a few months ago, Jim Capel, the construction management instructor, reached out to see if there were any “real-world” projects on campus that his Mentor High School students enrolled at Lakeland in the State of Ohio’s College Credit Plus program could help with.
The Lakeland Foundation’s associate director for development, Tina Baucher, and Executive Director Greg Sanders asked Capel and his classroom assistant Mike Glodowski to tour Mooreland Mansion, which features a large deck that extends around three sides of the mansion, according to the update.
After meeting with Lakeland’s director for Facilities Management Jay Kahn, Ryan Hamilton, dean for ITCS & Engineering Technology, and Joe Glavan, Mentor Schools and Lakeland’s director of Workforce Development, Capel and Glodowski chose the deck at Mooreland as a project to teach their students how to remove and install decking and lattice.
Now, students are working with their instructor’s guidance to transform the worn and weathered deck into a beautifully restored feature at one of Lake County’s finest landmarks.
Funding for this project was provided by Remarkable Lake County (formerly the Lake County Visitors Bureau) and The Lakeland Foundation, according to the update.
“We were glad to welcome Jim and Mike’s MHS/CCP construction students to our annual Donor-Scholar Breakfast last month to thank them for their hard work on the Mooreland project,” Sanders said. “I hope you see our region’s future construction workforce and craftspeople learning and applying the skills for which they’re training at Lakeland.”
Mooreland Mansion is an educational business center located on the campus of Lakeland Community College in Kirtland.
The historic turn-of-the-century mansion was originally built as a summer home for the Moore family of Cleveland. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Mooreland was renovated and opened in 1998 as a conference center managed by the college. The $3 million renovation maintained the historic integrity of the magnificent building while providing the amenities of today.
Mooreland is available to the community for meetings, conferences, banquets and special events.
Glavan said the combination of learning real-world skills while earning college credits is a huge benefit to the students and both Mentor Schools and Lakeland Community College.
“We are thrilled to celebrate the success of Mentor Public Schools Construction Program,” Glavan said. “Our students, earning dual credit at Lakeland Community College through College Credit Plus are working on an exciting real-world learning project. With the support of the Lakeland Foundation, they are revitalizing the historic Moorland Mansion deck, restoring its beauty and helping preserve a piece of local history.”
“We are grateful to Lakeland and Greg Sanders for their support,” he added. “Together, we are empowering students and helping shape Ohio’s future workforce.”