Nome Schoolhouse Weekend

The Nome Schoolhouse is an abandoned school building restored into a retreat and event center, with lodging and a fiber mill. It is located in Nome, North Dakota, about an hour west of Fargo, North Dakota. I wrote a blog post about my first visit there last year with my friend Mary. You can read about the building and that experience here. We had such a great time that we came back this November for two nights with my sister Betsy, and another friend, Mary Lou.

Last fall I had not paid much attention to the town of Nome. This time Mary and I arrived in the afternoon, early enough for a walk while it was still light out. Nome was incorporated in 1901. There were a couple of devastating fires early on, and for many reasons, like other rural areas, there is not much of a town left today. The current population is under 100, and there are only a couple of blocks of houses, with a few about to collapse. We saw one gift shop, but no gas station or grocery store or any other retail businesses. It is kind of sad. On a brighter note, the population has increased since the restoration of the school building and opening of the Nome Schoolhouse.

Following is a photo from the early days of Nome. I should have taken a couple of photos of what it looks like today.

After our walk around town, we checked out the property outside the schoolhouse building. The photo below shows the side of the gymnasium and an addition on the back with the lodging, dining room, and commercial kitchen.

There is a old barn under restoration, and a few fiber animals maintained for educational purposes.

Two alpacas and two sheep were very friendly. A highland mini cow is coming to join the other fiber animals, after it is weaned from its mother. Regular cows do not have wool coats, but, according to this source, the hair on highland cows can be brushed off and spun for a durable yarn.

There have been some changes to the Nome Schoolhouse business since I was there a year ago. Most importantly, one of the two original partners has exited the business. Chris Armbrust is now the sole owner and is forging ahead successfully on her own.

Following are two photos of the “History Room”, set up as a gathering place and work area where we hung out during our stay.

We noticed a few changes in the public rooms. The space in the next photo had previously been an apartment for one of the employees, but is now a common room including a full kitchen stocked with snacks for guests.

The guest rooms are all cozy and decorated with unique themes related to the history of the building or textiles. I did not get any photos other than this cute pillow.

The views outside are beautiful, even with the late fall gray scenery.

There is a sitting area is the hallway with fiber crafting books and comfortable chairs. A coffee station and microwave are located just around the corner.

The large gymnasium is available for event rental. While we were there, a group of ladies with their sewing machines were making pillowcases for a battered women’s shelter. In the photo below my sister is painting at the far end near the big garage door. She had started working outside, but it ended up being too cold and windy.

Our friend Mary Lou is an accomplished knitter, and is now interested in weaving. I brought my rigid heddle loom for her to try it out. There was enough time over the weekend to direct warp a set of two dish towels using cotton yarn, and then weave the entire first towel. She took the loom home to finish the second towel on her own.

Mary does natural dyeing and needle felting.

Mary was adding a face to a rabbit she had made years before. She shared this photo of the rabbit and a dog after completing them later at home.

Betsy worked on a couple of oil paintings.

I had brought some knitting projects, but when I was not helping Mary Lou with the weaving, I spent most of my time spinning. I was determined to finish the samples I had started in July for the School of Sweet Georgia “Spinning Up a Level” online class.

I made a lot of progress spinning samples of various thicknesses, and with different combinations of low or high twist in singles or plied yarn.

We ate dinner in the on site dining room both Friday and Saturday nights. On Friday the restaurant was open to the public. It was not open on Saturday, but as overnight guests we were able to order dinner. Saturday morning the staff asked us if lasagne sounded good for dinner. Yes! Before we were done eating our custom made meal, all the staff in the building left for the day. The four of us were the only people in the entire building until morning. We did not want to leave a mess, so cleared our dishes and left them rinsed in the commercial sink in the kitchen, and got the table ready for use the next day.

Breakfast was included with our room rental. This was not a Super 8 style cereal, muffins and waffles buffet. On Saturday morning the dining room was open to the public with a full breakfast menu. We were told to go ahead and pick out whatever we wanted from the menu. On Sunday morning, we did not have menu options, but were served a huge complete breakfast including crustless quiche, toast, yogurt, and fresh fruit. There was a bowl of homemade granola on the table. It was delicious and way more than my normal breakfast of cereal or oatmeal.

Along with fun art and decorations all over the building related to the history of the school or fiber art, there were a couple of inspirational messages that resonated with our group.

Proprietor Chris stood with us for a slightly blurry selfie.

It was an amazing weekend. We look forward to another overnight visit to the Nome Schoolhouse next fall.

P.S. At the beginning of December, I saw a posting on Facebook of “Walter”, a highland mini cow that now lives at the Nome Schoolhouse.