PATTI’S PLACE
Frederick County, VA

Patti’s Place is a new building created to commemorate an old schoolhouse. The Mount Williams School was a prominent rural institution in the small, rural, unincorporated community of Mount Williams. The schoolhouse stopped functioning as a school during the County’s consolidation movement of the mid-20^th century. After the building served as a school it became a private residence, then it was abandoned and it fell into disrepair.

The project team originally aimed to restore and renovate the original schoolhouse, but it was in such bad shape that it proved structurally and financially unfeasible. The architects measured and documented the building before it was demolished. They recreated its size, height, roof pitch, proportions, and original fenestration, to honor the building’s history and to make a welcoming, daylit community space.

Patti’s Place sits on a three-acre parcel within the 450 rural acres of Laurel Grove Wine Farm. Patti’s aims to reconnect people with their food and each other. It acts as a grocery, café, and a community educational center for traditional crafts, timeless skills, and regenerative farming practices. It also serves as a local gathering place for small meetings and get-togethers.

Patti’s Place has a large, open space with retail areas, a café, and large communal tables. The retail shelving was built by the owners using reclaimed wood from the original schoolhouse. Patti’s has a classroom for workshops, which can be closed off from the main space. It also houses an extensive wine library, with shelving and ladders also built by the owners from the salvaged schoolhouse wood. The primary difference between the old schoolhouse and Patti’s Place are the two large porches on the front and back facades. The large front porch serves as a welcoming gesture to visitors. The ample back porch is screened, and looks out towards a children’s play area. Both porches provide places for groups of people to eat and drink wine together and enjoy the farm and mountains.

This architectural project is about subsuming design novelty, in order to bring a sense of remembrance, pride, and community to a rural place that had lost its center.