- Coming up on "Legacy List" with Matt Paxton, it's back to school for Matt and the team, as they help a couple downsize their home.

They'll be put to the test because the family lives in an old elementary school.

- Wow, this is super cool.

It smells like a school.

It feels like a school.

- Filled with artwork, oddities and collectibles.

- Whoa, is that perfume?

- I think so or alcohol.

- Bourbon.

Yeah I think this is Bourbon.

- (laughs) I'm Matt Paxton.

Let's do it, man.

My team of specialists, Jamie, Mike and Avi, help me help people downsize their homes, and settle estates.

As the largest population of baby boomers in American history, transition towards retirement.

They and their families face the overwhelming task of emptying their homes to move.

We help them sift through a lifetime of possessions.

- Bingo!

- Heirlooms and collectibles.

- And we have a literally found a piece of history.

- To help them find the missing family treasures, that mean the most to them.

- Oh my goodness!

- Jackie Robinson.

- And along the way, they'll discover that the most important museum in the world may be in their family's basement.

- Oh - Oh - Oh, I've never seen that.

That is cool looking.

- From attics to sellers, closets to cupboards, we uncover the memories they want to preserve.

- This is living history.

This is what we're here to find.

Let's go.

- And discover the compelling, personal, and often historical stories, spanning generations that are their family's legacy.

(cheerful music) - [Narrator] Funding for Legacy List is provided by Wheaton World Wide Moving.

Wheaton's number one goal is to help you, your loved ones, and your belongings get to your new home quickly and safely.

You can find us at wheatonworldwide.com.

Wheaton World Wide Moving, we move your life.

FirstLight Home Care.

Committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

FirstLight believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing, and personal hygiene.

Details at FirstLightHomeCare.com.

The Mavins Group, a downsizing real estate sales and move management company.

Committed to easing the emotional and physical demands of beginning a new stage of life.

The Mavins Group, so much more than a move.

Insure Long Term Care, where we believe that aging at home, near friends and family, is ever more possible for more people.

Learn more at insureltc.com.

And by the Ruth Camp Campbell Foundation.

(upbeat music) (cheerful music) Today I'm in Gordonsville, Virginia, right in the middle of Virginia wine country.

I'm here to meet Rebecca and Brian, a non-traditional couple that needs help going through their stuff, and making space for an aging parent.

But here's the catch.

Their home is a 10,000 square foot elementary school that they've lived in for 27 years.

Hopefully I'll be able to teach them a few things about downsizing.

(door knocking) Rebecca.

- Hi, Matt, so nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

Brian good meet you.

This is really a school.

- Yeah, come on in.

- Wow, this is super cool.

Smells like a school, it feels like a school.

I knew they were artists, but when I walked up to the door, you're like, "Yeah, this makes sense."

This is who lives in a school.

So how long have you guys been here?

- So 1990- - Got here in '94.

- Yeah.

I was looking for a studio and somebody said, "Well, you might want to check out this old school building."

And we came down and looked around and we didn't spend very much time here, but we got back in the car, and I instantly laid down on the backseat, and started crying.

Cause I was like, "This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen."

And as we were driving out, we saw the for sale sign, and the guy had put it out the night before.

And it was like, we were like two meteors just coming at us.

- Cause it was meant - it was kismet -meant to be.

- It felt like it was meant to be, so.

- That's super cool.

One thing I love about my job is I get to meet a lot of people that see the beauty in other things.

And I'm really excited to see what you've kept from the old school, and then how you've transformed it into your own home.

- You want to see some big infrastructure changes?

- Let's do this.

Look at this.

- This was the girl's restroom.

- So this is really like a 10,000 square foot canvas.

- Yeah it is.

- Second grade here is my studio, so, when we come in here.

- It's one of the most important rooms when we moved in.

- Second grade, yes.

Wow.

- Now I've had this studio for close to 30 years, and it's pretty jam packed with stuff.

- Holy cow.

- So I teach photography, but I'm also fascinated by miniatures like little tiny worlds that sort of relate to d- - Like dioramas?

- Yeah dioramas.

- Okay.

- My journals which I've kept now for more than 20 years, started out normal size writing.

But now it's like the scale of microfiche.

It's like the writing is so small and people are like, can you even read it?

- Why do you do that?

- Because I'm trying to conserve space with this book, and people are like, "Can you even read that?

- All right wait a minute, I gotta pause right here.

So you write small to conserve space.

- Well, at this point, yes.

- We live in a 10,000 square foot school, and we're writing smaller.

- Yeah.

- To save space.

- Yes cause because you see how filled up it is.

- But you're artists so it's not.

It's basically it's all materials.

(upbeat music) What got you into art?

I mean, how did we get here 50 years later?

Like.

- There's such a thin membrane between imagination, and reality when you're a child.

I never sort of lost that feeling.

That sort of sense of awe, and wonder of not really knowing if certain objects were real or not.

You know like toys sort of create that feeling in people.

Those are the lenses that I make the dioramas with they put the world way further back and make 'em even smaller (laughs).

Some of them.

- So is there a diorama that you could show me?

- Yes.

Over here.

- Oh my gosh.

- This is like a music box on top with a lullaby my grandmother used to sing to me.

And then this is an imaginary studio underneath.

It's all lit up.

- I don't know, I'm like numb from creativity.

(Bernadette laughing) Okay, wow.

- Yeah.

This is like the auditorium.

- This is snow globe of possibilities.

- This is crazy.

So this was what?

The gym and the auditorium?

- Absolutely.

- Yes.

- Oh my gosh.

So this is what for you guys now?

- This is our garage, a workspace.

It is a gallery.

It is a rec room.

- It's everything.

- It's everything.

It's nice to have space.

- Yes it is.

- All right, well, where do you need me most.

- This direction.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

(cheerful music) - This is our overflow room.

It's kinda overwhelming.

I come in here and have a panic attack, and I sort of back out.

- Okay, I can see that.

- So.

- It's a lot.

- Yeah, tons of clothing.

There's a lot of stuff from my grandmothers and my aunts.

- So this is family clothing?

- Yeah this is beautiful family clothing.

- Okay.

Good news is I have someone that can help with all of the clothing - Mhmm.

That█s Awesome - This is going to eventually be your dad's apartment.

- I would like, yeah an apartment.

- Yeah.

- A place for him.

- Your mom lives here.

Your dad's gonna live here.

- You guys live here and your daughter lives here.

- Right?

- That's a pretty cool, multi-generational (murmurs).

- We love it.

- Making good use of- - Yeah.

- That square footage.

- What I do is help people declutter.

And so now I'm seeing, I have a lot to do.

- Yes.

- Are there any other rooms I need to clear out?

- So the official office, there's a lot in there, and some of it is like stuff that I got once relatives died, and I didn't even want to look through what's in there.

- All right, let's go check it out.

- So this was my office once upon a time.

- Okay.

- But it has to become the overflow, to the overflow.

- Okay.

- And I can no longer use this room, so.

- Okay.

So if we could leave this a functioning organized office, and that's a success.

- An incredible success.

- Okay.

- A resounding success.

- This a unique one you guys.

This is totally different and I really dig it.

- Yeah.

- We set the bar high enough for you?

- You did.

- Okay.

- Let's go find a place.

we'll sit down, talk about the legacy list, and then I'll get my crew in here to help.

- Okay.

(cheerful music) - Thank you guys for having us here.

It's a really special building.

I keep forgetting it's a home, but then I walk in a room and I'm like, "Oh yeah, "this is the kitchen."

Like, it's really cool.

It's really special.

We're not here to move you guys.

We're here to make space for your dad.

- Right.

- Mhmm - And I want to help you reorganize the office.

- It's much smaller, but it's not small.

(laughing) - It's not small.

It's not at all because there's no trash here.

And that's a challenge for us.

And I got nervous when I went to throw something in the recycling bin, I was like, was he gonna use this for art?

(laughing) Or is this actually getting recycled?

- (mumbling) Yeah.

- Can I start with you?

- Yeah, that sounds great.

The first thing on my legacy list is this magical little music box that belonged to my sister.

It has this little ballerina, that spins to some music.

And when I was little, I managed to get a hold of it and tried to smash it open and get her out.

Cause I think I really believed she was alive.

My grandmother, who my daughter's named after rescued it and put it up on a high shelf.

And I think that's one of the reasons that I do build the diorama's is because I'm always looking for that sort of - Small - It still exists.

- Small magic in a box.

- Yeah, right.

- Do you have anything on your list?

- My grandmother had a huge steamer trunk that was in really good shape.

And inside that I have some old quilts I had lost track of.

- Any idea like color or anything?

- Dark black, brown.

- Blakish, brownish.

- It might be under something.

- I can guarantee you, it's under something (laughing) - Yes you can.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

All right.

What about you?

- So my second legacy list item is, it's a stack of journals from my grandmother.

She was a sculptor, who was an artist who had built her own house.

My mom died when I was five.

So my grandparents, especially my grandmother really took care of us a lot.

And my grandmother, Sarah, we just called her Sarah by her first name.

My journal keeping is kind of a response to her journal keeping.

- Your art has a lot of your journaling in it.

- Mhmm.

- It's part of the art.

- Right.

- Your mentor was your grandma.

- Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah.

- Your hero.

- Yes absolutely everything, everything.

- Yeah sounds like a special lady.

- What about the next one?

- I have not seen it since we moved here and it is either a lithograph, or reproduction of one of the old civil war battles.

My great-grandfather had loaned it to a civil war museum in Pennsylvania.

- Okay.

- It became mine and disappeared in the move.

- All right, gosh that's so cool very different.

Any other items?

- I have this huge racks of vintage clothing.

- Yes.

- And a lot of it is family clothing.

Some of it's made by my mom, by my grandma.

- Would you feel good about them being donated or put in a, if there is some kind of historical thing behind it?

- Right.

- You'd be open to that?

- Yes I would be.

- Do you have anything else?

- I have two little items there.

Some people have said they've likened it to like prison art colored pieces of straw that put together in this beautiful mosaic, but using straw.

- I'm happy to look at it, we've got some.

- It'll be interesting find.

- Okay very cool.

- Any other thing?

- The final thing is the school itself.

- Okay.

- I saw on the cover of the Washington Post, an article about Brown vs the Board of Education, and it had a tiny illustration of a building.

I was very confused because it looked so much like the facade of our building.

- Yeah.

- Just kind of dawned on me that we have a twin.

That's the Moton school down in Farmville.

- Which is a museum now.

- Yeah.

Which is a civil rights museum.

So I want to know how has our history sort of different than their history.

- I am fascinated about this one.

I'm hoping we find all these items for you.

And this is gonna be the weirdest hunt that my team has ever done.

- (laughing) I hope so.

- But I'm really excited about it.

- (laughs) yeah I hope you guys have some fun.

- If we need you we'll come get you, otherwise we'll see you in a couple of days.

- Okay great.

- All right.

(cheerful guitar music) (pool balls clashing) - Nothing.

What's up guys?

(crowd chattering) - Nice.

What do you think?

- You said living in a school, I did not imagine this.

- Plenty of room for activities.

- Plenty room for activities.

- Yeah.

- You know I'm thinking PE class, - Yeah.

- Oh yeah.

- Dodgeball games.

- Oh yeah did you have one of those little like square scooter things with the wheels on 'em?

- Absolutely.

- Like run over your fingers on them.

This is gonna sound crazy, but I feel like walking into their home, which hasn't been a school for decades, it's still smelled like my elementary school.

- So believe it or not, it's very similar to a lot of the houses we go into.

It's just a 10,000 square foot school.

They actually are making space for her father, and then they need to downsize.

They've just got too much stuff.

They're really cool people.

And they see the beauty in everything.

- So, what types of things are we going to find?

What are we looking for.

- Really cool legacy lists.

We've got a steamer trunk.

We've got some journals that were her grandmothers.

-Okay.

- Yeah and her grandma was like her inspiration for everything.

I mean, that's why she got into art.

We've got a music box and it's got, I think when you open it, a ballerina pops up.

There's a bunch of old vintage clothes.

- Oh.

- I need you to go through it.

- All right.

- And then they want to know more information about this school.

- Yeah I was reading up on some of the.

- Yes - History you sent.

- It's got the exact same floor plan.

It's a Moton school.

- Which is now a museum.

- It is, yeah, it's a civil rights museum.

Mike, your guys are gonna be really busy.

I know you've done a lot of work with salvage.

That's kind of an ongoing rebuild in this house.

So I want you to spend some time with Brian as well, just to learn more about that.

Jamie and I are gonna go into the room, that we're cleaning out for her dad, and you guys are gonna go into the office.

- Cool.

- All right.

- Also by the way, if you can't tell no AC.

(team laughing) - What's different?

- Yeah.

- About that?

- Lots of work to do, drink your water, stay focused.

Let's get going.

(cheerful music) (door whirring) - Oh my goodness.. - Wow.

- Hard to even know where to start.

- I mean, it's like, my dad always said, how do you eat an elephant, one bite.

- At a time (laughs) - Kind of a sensory overload.

I mean, everywhere you look right here, this is phrenology head.

Do you know anything about phrenology?

- Just a little bit like, like the segments of your, - The shape of your skull was like a roadmap - Got it.

- To all kinds of different things, like your personality.

- Is it like quack medicine?

- I think it was really well marketed.

- Yeah.

- Quackery.

- Yeah.

- It came and ran its course.

And then it was gone.

- Kinda like hammer pants.

- (laughs) Yes.

Did you have any hammer pants?

- I did.

- Oh my.

- Yeah.

- Oh my gosh, there's just so much stuff everywhere.

- And this is the challenge, like, I don't know what's "Keep".

What's art supplies and what's storage.

Cause they can use anything for art.

When you empty your room, you leave an artist a blank canvas to fill it back up.

- Right.

- And we're literally leaving these artists a blank canvas.

- But dad's moving in.

- Yup.

Her dad is gonna live in this room.

- This is a cool apartment.

You've got a lot of great features, huge windows, lots of light, tall ceilings, hardwood floors.

- You've got minor decluttering to do.

- (laughs) Just a little.

(cheerful music) - I'm sorry, Madam.

I'm gonna have to reposition you, by the way.

I'm Mike, Mike Kelleher.

I'm here to help the family find some important items.

Don't mind that, just gonna meet right there.

(playful music) - One, two, three, and hips have come of.

Okay.

(playful music) - I did find these old composition notebooks.

- Oh man.

- About five of them.

- Wow.

- Okay, so these are, these are like artist's sketchbooks.

- Hmm.

Just sketches, no writing?

- Very little writing.

And it might have a date or something else.

- I mean sketchbooks, the grandmother.

I think you might be holding on to a legacy list item.

- A strong contender.

- Yeah.

(cheerful music) - I mean, look at this tiny little baby watch.

Look how small that is.

- Why does a baby need to know what time it is?

(laughing) - Great old cameras.

- Oh my gosh.

- (mumbling) - Look there's a whole box of old fortunes from fortune cookies.

- What?

- Yeah, this one says a happy romance for you shortly.

- Oh look at that.

- Yeah.

(cheerful music) - Oh, your ability to juggle many tasks, will take you far.

- Okay.

(cheerful music) - What does this one say?

This one says, "Look down, you will find a legacy list item.

- Stop.

- Oh, actually I think I just found a legacy list item.

- (laughs) - What dates it is the handle, right?

- All right.

- The rest of this is actually kinda nice, and it's in pretty good shape.

But when you look at the age of the handle that tells you it's a really old trunk.

- The steamer trunk, a rugged reminder of a bygone era where all of one's worldly possessions could be stored in a single piece of luggage.

A large durable trunk made of wood and leather, preferably waterproofed with tree sap.

Early American trunks date from the late 1600's, and were used mainly by the adventurous few who crossed the Atlantic.

By the mid 19th century, people were really on the move.

Thanks to steam powered trains and transatlantic ships, a person could travel farther and faster than ever before.

Imagine being a woman and having to pack for a stage coach trip from St. Louis to San Francisco.

The 2,800 mile journey took a scant 25 days.

A steamer trunk was needed just to pack all the petticoats.

As more people began to travel, fancy steamer trunks made of cloth and leather became a sign of status.

(old fashioned cheerful music) One manufacturer made a name for himself by offering a stylish yet durable trunk.

His name, Louis Vuitton.

Young Louis got his start as an apprentice Layetier, a trunk packer for wealthy travelers To prove just how durable steamer trunks are, here's an interesting fact, a steamer trunk that sank with the Titanic was recovered decades later with a readable business cards, love letters and a diary.

By the 1920█s steamer trunks starts to go out of fashion and are replaced by more modern luggage choices.

Air travel only furthers their demise.

Today most steamer trunks are decorative conversation pieces, but there was a time when you wouldn't leave home without one.

- Why is this what he's looking for?

What's the significance?

- This was someone in his family's, and it's really more what was inside it?

- It's missing the handle on the side.

- Okay.

Look at that, old flags.

- Wow.

- I don't know why you'd have this many flags, unless maybe it was from the school.

Oh wow.

(box banging) - Ooh.

- Oho there's something down there.

- Oh yeah.

- Oh man, that is what he was talking about.

Wow.

I know exactly what this is.

- This is like all the flags.

- Believe it or not.

This is advertising.

- Wow.

- I mean, look at all these different flags.

- Yeah.

- They would actually, you could get these in cigarette cartons, but pre-world war one.

- Wow.

- So this is old.

- So this is old yeah.

- Oh yeah, this is a hundred years old.

- It's in great condition.

- It's in really good condition.

And you can see if you turn it over, you see where someone in her family put it all together.

- Yeah.

- And they sewed it together.

(playful music) (boxes shuffling) - Oh Mike.

- What'd you got Abbe?

- Oh man, I think I found a legacy list item here, buddy.

- Oh my gosh.

- Eurika, right in front of me.

I've been passing over it a couple of times.

Pull it out.

Bam.

The lithograph.

The battle of Shiloh, the battle of Shiloh took place in Tennessee.

This was a knockdown drag out fight.

It was the greatest carnage of the civil war to that point.

But I don't want to gloss over the importance of lithographs.

This was the historical document of its time.

We are touching history.

I'm really excited to share this with Brian.

I know he's gonna be happy that we found it and we probably can dig a little bit more into the genealogy of this thing too.

(play drums banging) - Takes me back to karate kid.

- Yes!

- Two.

- No matter how difficult the task at hand is, Matt always brings a sense of humor and lightness to the job.

And I think it's important to keep smiling, even when the work is tough.

- Whoa, is that perfume?

- I think so.

- I think it's bourbon.

- Or alcohol.

- Yeah, I think it's just bourbon.

They got a couple cool things over here.

- I know, this is a neat little table.

So Regal, yes.

All the fans.

- Yes.

- And this, this was over here and I'm wondering if this is.

- Oh!

- The music box.

- I think it is the music box.

She wanted to free this little girl.

- Oh.

- From her cage because she wanted her.

- She thought she wanted to get out.

- She want to get out, and so she broke it.

- Interesting.

- And this is like one of the main things that got her into art.

- Really?

- And she still does these miniatures I mean if you have a look around.

- Yeah I've seen so.

- And as a little girl, she was just infatuated with this stuff.

- It just was like, what really.

- Yeah - Opened up that door for her.

- I think it was that look of the way the feet are just dangling.

- Mhmm.

- Rebecca's a dreamer, And this was one of the first things that she had from her childhood that got her in to the art that she's currently on.

And I just, I love it.

The fact that she wanted to free this little girl.

It's more about the memory than the actual item.

- Yeah.

- And she loved this thing.

(cool music) (door banging) (box banging) - Hey Brian, - Hey Mike.

- What are you up to?

- I'm trying to clear this out because summer's here.

And I need to call in a couple more orders of wood.

- How many wood-burning appliances do you have in here?

- I have seven.

We have one in each of the rooms.

One in my mom's house.

- Oh that sounds like a full-time job, just feeding them.

- It's busy, yes it is.

- Well, Brian, why don't I give you a hand stacking some of this wood.

- I won't refuse.

(wood clanking) - Give me an idea of what's going on over here with these pools.

- Well, number of years back, I took my daughter to a carnival and sure enough, she played that Ping Pong game.

(laughing) And won two goldfish.

That turned into an aquarium in the house.

- Oh my gosh.

- Asked if she could get a couple of Koi, she loved Koi and I called it, "Yeah sure their four inches long.

- Sure.

- Little did I know Koi grow to be rather large.

So it wasn't long (laughing) before we needed an outdoor pond.

- And here we are.

- And here we are, his one's looking a little thick right now because I flush it out with rainwater, and we haven't had rain in a couple of weeks.

I catch all the rainwater.

- Okay.

- Off of the building.

We pipe it in here, the fish dance in it for a little while.

I bucket into the water tank.

- Okay.

And then we gravity feed it, down to another water tank by the garden.

- Oh wow.

So this is actually serving a purpose.

- It is now.

We've just started adding this to our garden and it just grows like crazy.

I don't put any chemicals in here with the fish, all organic going down.

- Wow.

- Rain water, there's nitrogen added to it.

We've got the algae that goes in there.

- So the water is coming from the koi pond?

- And it's gravity fed right down here.

- Here we go.

- This red door.

- Mhm.

- Used to be on that one room school house.

We took that off.

- Gimme that.

- But I'm using it down here to keep critters out of it at night.

(laughing) We always find something that's been discarded or it's going to be discarded.

And we put it back to use, like the loft that we have in the kitchen.

- Mhmm.

- That was my daughter's first bedroom.

That was completely made of scrap material.

- That's really awesome.

And it actually speaks to a trend we're seeing.

People are not wanting to just throw things away.

- Hmm.

Instead they want to try and find a new use or a new life for these items.

You're trend-setters, you've been doing this for 30 years, - For 30 years!

Ahead of the curve.

- That's right.

- I'm bringing in Hm from Housing on Vintage Clothing because she's the real expert here.

She's going to be able to tell us what should be sold, what should be donated, and what should just be gotten rid of.

Hm, thank you so much for coming out, and taking a.

- Happy to do it.

- Taking a look at this collection.

I mean, you have so much experience in the vintage world, with Halcyon and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to have you out here to look at this collection.

I mean, it's sizable, right?

- Yes, definitely.

Yes, it's exciting.

- Right?

- Lot's of things to look at.

- Before we really get digging into the racks.

I want to ask you about this fur coat that's here.

This was Rebecca's mother's coat.

And in fact, her whole family, they were furriers.

So, this is something that is really important to Rebecca.

And I just wanted to learn a little bit more about it from you.

- Well, it's a Mouton fur and- - What is that?

- It's sheepskin made to kind of look like beaver, from the 1940s.

- Okay.

- We probably wouldn't take this coat just because it's so heavy and in Richmond you know, we just don't have the weather for it.

- Yeah.

So, but it's a great coat.

This collection is great.

I mean, there's so many pieces from different eras.

- Yeah.

- It's exciting, you know.

- How often do you get to come in, and look at a collection that's you know, of this size?

- Yeah not, not that often.

(cheerful music) I'm excited about seeing some men's wear too.

Like, this is a really great men's shirt.

We're always looking for men's stuff.

- Okay.

- That's harder to find than women's.

Love this, it's beautiful.

- Mhmm basically like how to preserve things that you wanna ultimately consign?

Like what's a quick tip?

- Yeah, keep them out of the sun.

Just a cool, dry, dark place is best.

- Mhmm.

- Actually the dry cleaning plastic is not good to leave on things.

- Really?

- It just makes things bake inside.

And so the plastic isn't good.

And I love this cotton, 1930s, really beautiful.

These buttons are really great.

- I mean, how do you know it's 1930's?

Just off the top of your head?

- Just years of doing this.

Yeah, I can just kind of tell by cuts and different styles.

This style is really in right now, 1970s, that boho look, there's an eighties dress over here.

- Which one, this one?

That looks, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It has a very eighties does forties look to it with the print.

Something like that, we would probably be interested in.

- You've seen these fashion trend cycle through.

- Mhmm yes yes.

- From decade to decade, right?

So it's all kind of being recycled, if you will.

- Yes, everything comes back.

- Everything does come back.

- Yeah, there's hardly anything new it's everything's - But it's still okay to get rid of things (laughs).

- Yes, that's true (laughs).

Yes, absolutely.

- Rebecca doesn't need to worry that these will end up in a landfill.

- Yeah.

- There will be a place for them somewhere.

- I think so.

- Okay.

- There's a lot of great pieces here.

- Even though Didi isn't purchasing the whole collection.

There are still quite a few pieces that are gonna to be great for donation.

(cheerful music) - I understand, you went to this school - I did.

- The year it was open, - Open, I was in the sixth grade.

- So you were the first class in this school.

- Mhmm.

- You live up the street, still.

- Ahu a mile from here.

- So you went here the year before world war II started?

- I guess I did, yup.

- Ms. Gretta is a friend of a friend.

She drove by because she heard I was in town, and she wanted to meet me, and the minute she walked in the door, she grabbed onto me and gave me a hug.

And I liked her immediately.

I want you to meet one of the family members that lives here in this school building.

- I would love to do that.

- Okay let's go knock on their door.

- I've been wondered who they were.

- What room was this, do you know?

- I think it was a first grade.

First grade.

- Yeah, it says one.

That makes sense.

- Oh there you go.

- My memory's not as bad as I thought.

(door latch clicking) - Hello.

- Hey.

I want you to meet someone, Rebecca.

- Oh.

- This is Ms. Gretta.

- Hi Rebecca.

- She went to school here the first year this building opened.

- No.

- Yes.

- She was- - Oh really, that's great.

- Sixth and seventh grade.

- Oh that's awesome.

- She went here.

- And my mother was a principal here for several years.

- Really?

- Uhu.

- So it's probably been a really long time, since you've seen this place?

- I don't think I've been here since the seventh grade.

- What's your favorite memory in this building?

- I would say number one, it was a brand new school when we came here.

- All right, here's the big question.

Any advice for all of us?

You are 90.

You've lived long, good, strong life.

- No, just be happy.

- There you go.

- All right.

- I like it.

- Just be happy.

- All right I'm going to hug you up.

I gotta get back to work.

- Oh poor thing.

- Thank you so much for coming by.

- Oh, I'm so glad I could come by.

(calm sweet music) - We all have vivid memories of elementary school.

That uncomfortable period of pre-teen awkwardness captured for all eternity in the class picture.

Blame the Puritans.

(giggling) Back in 1647, they make proper education for children, compulsory.

Puritan leaders worry Satan will lead the next generation astray.

So they fund schools that teach children, not only reading and writing, but most importantly, Bible study.

(page whooshing) By the mid 19th century, the majority of American children are being taught in one room school houses that serve a primarily rural population.

Most students don't go to school past the eighth grade, after all a child's first responsibility is to the family farm.

(horse neighing) With the onset of the industrial revolution, families pour into big cities, looking for work.

And the demand for schools grows in urban areas.

(page whooshing) By the early 20th century, American children are required to go to elementary school.

As more kids enter the educational system laws are passed to provide for them.

Today, there are over 87,000 elementary schools in the U.S. As they strive to keep up with the times, many of the things we remember fondly from our school days are gone.

Erased from most classrooms, are old fashioned chalkboards replaced by the less messy whiteboard.

Notebooks, once a place to endlessly doodle have taken a back seat to laptops, and iPads and good luck finding a wall mounted pencil sharpener.

(trash clunking) Even Dodge ball has been phased out of most school's curricula.

Today elementary schools face new challenges, but one thing that hasn't changed, students eager to learn, and make memories that will last a lifetime.

(cheerful music) - Yeah, we found all the legacy list items now, and Avi and I are going to go on a little trip, and try to learn more about the physical school itself.

- Hi!

- Welcome to the Louisa County Historical Society.

- Thanks a lot, thanks for having us.

- I'm Karleen Kovalcik.

I'm the executive director here.

- Good to meet you.

So we are down the street, we're cleaning out an old elementary school, and we needed to learn more about really just the history of education here in Louisa county.

- Great well we actually have a one-room school house that we relocated to the property here.

So I'd love to take you out back, and we can talk a little bit more about it.

- That's fantastic.

(cheerful music) (door latch clinking) - Come on in.

- This is the school.

- This is the one room Trevilians school house.

It was a local white school from 1880 to 1922.

- So there would be one teacher with lots of different kids.

You'd have kindergartner and a seventh grader.

- Then in the thirties and forties, they started to consolidate all of these one room, two room school houses with separate classrooms for standard grades and multiple teachers.

- So we know like separate but equal, you know, had African-American students, white students in separate schools.

I mean, did this school ultimately become an African-American school?

- This one did not.

- Okay.

- So the smaller schools were not the schools that they integrated.

They integrated the consolidated schools.

Brown vs. Board happened in 1954, but it was not until 1965 that Louisa county public schools even started integrating.

(triumphant music) - Never underestimate a 16 year old girl.

In 1951, Barbara Johns is a junior at the all-black Moton High School in Prince Edward County, Virginia.

The building is crumbling and overcrowded.

When it rains the roof leaks and kids huddle under umbrellas indoors.

Barbara decides to take matters into her own hands.

She organizes a student strike, protesting the deplorable conditions and demands that the school be brought up to the standards of the nearby all-white school.

Little did she or anyone know what would happen next.

Barbara Johns transforms American public education.

Hers is one of the five cases folded into Brown vs. Board of Education and the landmark 1954 Supreme court decision.

Justices unanimously rule that segregation is unconstitutional.

Instead of complying with the court, Southern lawmakers launched the massive resistance campaign to prevent integration.

Some districts closed down schools altogether.

From 1959 to 1964, no children in Prince Edward County, Virginia attend public school.

There's a loophole for the white kids.

They get vouchers that tax dollars pay for to attend private academies.

Finally, a decade after the Brown vs Board decision, the Supreme court overturns Virginia's tuition grants and orders Prince Edward County schools to reopen.

"Segregation must be eliminated, root and branch", the court declares in a 1968 case, which paves the way for the federal government to force real integration after a years of stalling.

School desegregation, wasn't just the result of judicial rulings, and federal intervention.

Leading the fight were brave activists like strike organizer, Barbara Johns.

- After speaking with Karleen, we had the opportunity to meet with Reverend Lewis, who was a student in Louisa County during segregation.

- I grew up back in the fifties, but we were the only black family in that community.

And my best friend who lived across the street from me.

We played together and ate at each other's houses, and I didn't realize anything about he was different from me until in 1954.

- Mhmm.

- When we both started school.

- He got on one bus, I got on another.

- I can only imagine with the intensity of racism, at that time, it really hits home.

You know, this moment really hits home.

So Mr. Lewis at the home we're working in, we found a class picture of what looked to be an integrated class.

- Mhmm.

- Two to three African-Americans in that particular class.

- Freedom of choice came to Louisa in '65.

That was my senior year in high school.

We had the opportunity to go from A.G. Richardson to Louisa County high school.

I chose not to do that.

- Okay.

- And I chose not to because I wanted to graduate with my class, and I didn't want any headaches.

I'm just going to be upfront and honest.

- Yeah (laughs).

- I didn't want any headaches doing my senior year.

- You just want to go to school.

- I want to go to school.

- Yeah.

- Yeah and I wanted to be appreciated.

And I want to be in an environment where I felt appreciated - You felt valued.

- Yeah and valued.

However, with '71, I return as a teacher, I return to an integrated school system.

- I mean, that's not a lot of years.

- No.

- It's only five years.

- Yeah.

- You came back and you're teaching.

- My experience as a classroom teacher was wonderful.

I had no problems with, you know, with kids period, because you're there to learn.

I'm there to respect you.

You are to respect me.

And I had 34 wonderful years when I became principal of a Jouett Elementary, the teachers in that school had never had a black principal.

There were some women in that school, who had attitudes toward me.

So I took those persons on as projects, and I'll never forget.

There was a conference over at Lynchburg, Virginia, and this one teacher who taught third grade, I extended an invitation to her to come with me to that conference.

And on our way there, we were able to conversate.

That's what created that shift in our relationship, when we got back.

- You know, I'm a big believer that in broken places, that's where the healing- - Yeah.

- Healing begins.

- If you don't communicate, you aren't going to resolve anything.

- Yeah.

- Just do what is right.

Treat others the way you want to be treated.

And it will come back to you, may not come back right away, but it will come back to you.

- Well personally I understand a lot of what some of these students went through.

I mean, having gone to a school, which was predominantly white, was named after confederate soldiers, you know men who wanted to keep my ancestors as slaves.

It was really a challenge to be in that space, to be myself in that space.

I remember my father talking about that the things I was going through would be a microcosm of what I would experience in the world.

And so as much as I want to, to shelter my children from some of the difficulties of the world.

I also understand it's important for them to have their own experiences.

(cheerful music) - Matt says, this is the room where you guys need some help.

- Yes.

- Obviously there's a lot of stuff in here.

What do you want to see when we're done?

- I guess we're thinking that this'll be emptied out, but curate back in the stuff that's gonna be for him.

- We'll get this area squared away, do some decluttering next door.

- Yes.

- I'm going to go grab my team, and we're going to get started.

- Thank you.

- All right.

- We found all the legacy list items.

Now it's time for me and my team to get to work.

(cheerful music) The hard part here wasn't getting the items out of the house.

It was the prep work.

Brian and Rebecca are really, really focused on keeping as much out of the landfill as possible, with items as unique as theirs there is no replacing them.

(birds chirping) - Oh.

- What do you guys think?

- Oh my gosh, look at this.

- Wow.

- Lots of space.

- Yes.

- I love the desk set up like this.

Almost like a classroom again.

- Wow.

- This is incredible.

- I never thought we'd see the floor again.

(laughing) - This looks like the day we moved down, yeah.

- Pretty much so we started moving stuff right into this room.

- Like immediately?

because it was the only room.

- Yeah.

- That didn't have carpeting glue down.

- It literally became.

- Yeah.

- Storage the day you moved in.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Honestly, my concern now for living in here, is dampening the echo.

So it's not too loud- Right, right?

- For your dad.

- There's so much stuff in all the other rooms that the acoustics are nothing like this, so.

- Yeah, the rest of your whole property is soundproofed just by the volume of stuff you have in it.

- We can fix that.

- Yeah.

- We can fix this.

- So you already see work you gotta do.

- Yup.

- Brian likes to fix things.

He likes to do things.

And I think he was really excited about getting this room ready for Rebecca's dad.

(footsteps clunking) - Oh my look at this.

Somebody gets my style.

- I don't know how much emptying we really did.

I think it was more just kinda getting it together.

- Yeah.

- This was the principal's office a long time ago.

- Right.

- Is this your office?

- This Was where I had my computer set up.

And then it- - So why would have a computer literally on the other side of the school from your studio?

- So that's one of those things that the computer is like candy.

You know, you want to keep going back to the candy dish, and sort of playing and distracting yourself.

And I will do that endlessly.

Most artists will and it's poison actually to creativity.

So it's ideal to keep it separate.

Keep your phone away, keep your computer away and just be with your supplies and be with your own thoughts.

- Yeah, you're an amazing artist, and it just needs to be seen.

- Thanks so much, wow.

- Yeah, I want to go through the legacy list.

I've got a lot of new information I found out.

I'm really excited to tell you a couple of things.

- Okay, sounds great, thank you.

- Right, following you.

- Okay.

(cheerful music) (water splashing) - Here we are.

End have a very interesting week.

We're now sitting in your dad's future bedroom.

- That's so cool.

- That's kinda cool.

- Yeah.

- But you guys are doing it because you love your family, and you want them to be close to you.

You're not doing it because finances forced you to.

- Right.

- And you guys are kind of a nontraditional home, but your family actually has kind of traditional values.

- Mhmm.

- And you guys, as a couple is really fun to watch.

I like watching Brian set you up to succeed.

- He does a lot.

- He loves it.

- Usually a legacy is attached to an item.

That's why we have a legacy list, but here it's, the legacy is really attached to a place.

- Yes it is.

- The first item was our vintage clothes.

Obviously I'm just using this to symbolize.

- That was given to me by my aunt and yeah it's definitely a hippy hat.

- Yeah, it's a great hat.

You got a lot of really nice vintage clothes.

We did specifically get the fur looked at.

Fur is really a commodity like it or not.

I know it was your family business for a long time.

It's a challenging time for furs.

- Mhmm.

- It's a beautiful piece.

It was part of your family story, but it is not who your family is now.

- No, no definitely.

- Not at all.

- Absolutely not.

- And it's funny, all the little old lady clothes are actually quite nice.

- Hmm okay.

_ And I think she's anxious to buy a lot of them, if she can.

- Okay good, absolutely.

- I thought it was really great.

This next one was a really cool legacy item for me, the steamer trunk.

What I love it, it's the easiest legacy list item I've ever found.

It was right over here in this corner, had lots of different blankets inside.

But I found one that was just fascinating.

And I don't know what you know about this.

- I know that I had not seen that in a long time.

- Okay.

It is a beautiful, beautiful piece of folk art now.

This thing is really, really old.

Okay, this is what will blow you away.

Austria, Hungary.

- Not anymore.

Not anymore.

Since world war one, that means this is over 110 years old.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- That's amazing.

- It's amazing.

This is actually advertisements.

These are actually from cigarettes, and you'd buy a 10 cent pack of cigarettes, and you'd either get this piece of flannel, or you would get a little piece where you'd mail away, and get it back.

And then what happened is people would make the quilt.

First of all, someone smoked a lot of cigarettes to make this blanket.

- That's a lot of cigarettes.

- We can talk about that later.

But someone made this.

- Yeah we have lost track of this so long.

- It is in really good shape.

- Yeah.

- There were a lot of flags in that trunk as well.

- I'm glad you found those.

Those are going to be all the flags that I flew here from the beginning when we bought this.

- They're all here, they're all on the very top of that.

- All right.

Well, I'm happy about that.

- Why do you like flags so much?

- I don't know.

- It's your dad being in the military.

- My dad was in the military.

Brought up very patriotic.

Still so.

- Is it respect for the past?

- It is, it's respect for the past.

It's respect for the present.

- Yeah, yeah.

It's respect for the future.

- The next one I thought was just amazing.

- Oh - Oh.

- Is this the music box?

- Yes it is oh my gosh.

Look at her.

When I was little, this was my sister's music box.

I thought she would, this little girl was alive in there.

I wanted to free her, so I had taken her down off the shelf, and I was smashing this open, and my grandmother ran upstairs and took it.

And she's like, "Becky, this doesn't belong to you.

This is your sister's."

- This clearly started your excitement for art.

- Yeah.

- And the type that you would end up.

- Right.

- I mean, how old were you when you got this?

- Three years old when I was trying to smash it open.

- Your fascination was already there.

- I think I'm trying to make work that makes people have experienced a sense of wonder.

Basically trying to repeat this recipe that I've known since I was three years old.

- So the next item was the straw art, kind of the bonus item you wanted us to find.

- Mhmm.

- And I did not find it.

- We'll keep looking.

- We'll keep looking.

Good news is there's plenty of space to keep looking.

- Yeah, - All right we did find, however, this is probably my favorite.

The lithograph.

(box clunking) - That is it.

(cheerful music) - Okay.

Let's put it there.

all right.

- Okay.

And you knew that it was a lithograph of the battle of Shiloh, it was in your family.

It was donated by Kelly of Quincy.

- That would have been my grandfather.

- Your grandfather, okay.

His father Green Barry Kelly was in this battle.

And not only was he in the battle of Shiloh, he was in what they call "The Hornet's Nest."

It was more than a 50 percent mortality rate.

And he survived.

- He did.

- Wow.

- He lived.

- Wow.

- This is Green Barry Kelly's government benefit card.

- Oh my.

which means he lived to collect benefits.

- Oh my gosh.

- Oh my gosh.

- It tells you all the things he ailed from.

Dude had a lot of injuries.

And in 1863, he was medically discharged, got married, got married a second time and had nine kids.

And one of those kids was your grandfather.

- Wow.

- I've never, ever even seen this.

- Yeah.

- Why have I never seen this 30 some years?

- The things moved in storage.

Some things got put in storage right away.

And some things stayed in storage.

I'm gonna have to tell my dad right away too, about this.

- One of the things you asked me to find out was more information on this school.

We got to go to the Louisa County Historical Society, and actually look at not only the records, but actually look at one of those one room school houses.

There with Brown vs Board of Education in '54, they were told "You got to integrate."

It was county by county basis.

So many just kind of ignored it.

In '65, they were told that they could choose.

And this was the form that they got, there's Green Springs on the list.

- It is.

- And after that first year, you can see the numbers.

And very few black kids would go to a white school.

And obviously no white kids went to a black school.

In '68 the federal government came in and said, "You will not get our funding, if you do not integrate the schools."

And the administrators in this county didn't really want to integrate.

And you know, there's some counties in the state that actually shut down their public school system because they didn't want to integrate.

This is the part that I love.

The Louisa PTA got together, the black and white parents got together, and said, "Look, we owe this to all of our kids, to get this funding.

We're already underserved.

Let's do this together."

And the PTA is the one that forced the county to integrate these schools.

- Oh my god, that's so cool.

- All right.

- That's why the picture you have is an integrated picture.

- That's awesome.

- The last thing you asked us to find, was your grandma's journals?

- Yes.

- When you described them to me, I don't know what I expected, but I want to point out one thing first.

- Mhmm.

- She also had insanely small handwriting.

- Cool, yeah.

There it is.

- Know somebody else like that?

- That looks familiar.

- Yep, I guess I do.

- You guys are a lot alike.

She was a great artist, strong woman.

In fact, this college that she went to.

I mean, they did a book on her.

How old was she when they made this book?

- She's pretty old.

- Yeah.

- Eighties- - Eighties?

- Maybe even nineties.

- Ans she was actively creating art.

- Yeah.

- She was prolific.

Did she raise you or was she just around a lot?

- My real mother died when I was five.

So I couldn't really wrap my head around the fact, that my mom was dead.

- Yeah.

- I just thought she was hiding.

I always thought she was hiding.

My grandmother would always come over and take care of us.

And she'd always set us up to draw, and do little things like that.

You know, everybody would draw, and I would see what my sister's drawing and I'd copy what she was drawing.

And then I would be like, "I'm the best."

Anyway, it's territory staked out for myself.

- One of the dangers in, you know, loving someone so much from your past, you know, we spend a lot of time thinking about them, and my dad's been gone 20 years, but I think about him every day.

- Mhmm.

- And I wonder if he'd be proud of what I've become.

Do you think your grandmother would be proud of the person, and the artist that you've become?

- Well, she was always very demonstrative and would always praise me quite a bit.

So yeah, I hope so.

I don't know.

(calm music) (crying) - Yeah she would be very proud, and she wouldn't keep it to herself either.

- I guess there's like guilt, a little bit of guilt baggage too.

I wish that we had been in the position to just sort of let her spend the rest of, you know, the end of her life at her home instead of sort of being taken to live somewhere else.

I think she would have lived a little longer, that would have eased my conscience a lot to have been able to be with her a little bit more at the end, and so.

- I know women love to hear that they're just like their mothers and grandmothers.

- Maybe not the mothers, but the grandmothers (laughs).

- You possess all the great things she had, you really do.

And it's just been a joy to get to know you.

And I cannot wait to go see your next show.

- Thank you.

- And I'll see Brian in the back setting everything up, and getting it ready.

- Yes you will.

- And he'll be smiling ear to ear.

- Soldering wires.

- Yeah.

- Yup.

- I think that's what I want to end on.

I love watching you guys live together.

Your, your love is huge and it fills a 10,000 square foot.

- Thank you.

- Well thank you, this has been incredible.

- Thank you and thank you for letting us in.

- Yeah, thank you.

(upbeat music) - I feel like Brian is a very supportive partner.

He's always trying to set Rebecca up for success, and always trying to make her dreams a reality.

- My favorite example of Brian's ingenuity, the water catchment system that he created.

Really, really outside of the box.

- What they're doing is the future of aging.

80% of the country is gonna age in place in their existing homes.

Brian, Rebecca are ahead of the curve.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Legacy List" is provided by Bekins Van Lines.

At Bekins, our goal is to provide a smooth and simple moving experience no matter the size or distance of your move.

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You can find us at bekins.com.

Bekins, this is moving.

FirstLight Home Care, committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

FirstLight believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing, and personal hygiene.

Details at firstlighthomecare.com.

The Mavins Group, a downsizing, real estate sales, and move management company committed to easing the emotional and physical demands of beginning a new stage of life.

The Mavins Group, so much more than a move.

(upbeat music) Insure Long Term Care, where we believe that aging at home, near friends and family, is ever more possible for more people.

Learn more at insureltc.com.

And by The Ruth Camp Campbell Foundation.

(upbeat music) - Visit mylegacylist.com to learn more about the tips, tools, and professionals to help make your own big life, move easier.

Learn more about this episode, or submit your story to be featured on the show at, mylegacylist.com (upbeat music)