BELLEVILLE – There’s new life for an old one-room schoolhouse on the grounds of Willow Run Airport, where in the future, aviation education and history will be on the classroom’s curriculum.

Built in 1938 for use in the Henry Ford Academy educational system, the Willow Run Schoolhouse had a number of uses over the years, acting as a training building for the Army Air Corps and later as a private residence.

The 3,000 square-foot schoolhouse was empty, dilapidated and home to a few critters about 10 years ago, when its most recent owner gifted it to the Yankee Air Museum. The structure was moved about 3½ miles from the west side to the east side of Willow Run Airport. And for the last 18 months or so, Phoenix Construction and the building trades – some volunteer, some paid – have been renovating the schoolhouse.

“It’s just a beautiful little building,” said Yankee Air Museum Curator Gail Drews. “They’ve done a great job, and we’re really anxious to start using it.”

Started in 1981 by a group of avid aviation history buffs, the Yankee Air Museum has acquired and returned to flying status five World War II aircraft. The pride of its fleet are a B-17G “Flying Fortress” called the “Yankee Lady,” which was restored and returned to flying status in 1995. The museum also has a B-25D Mitchell, a medium-duty bomber similar to the type used by Jimmy Doolittle’s raid over Tokyo. It is one of only two B-25Ds still flying today.

Located in a Willow Run hangar, the Yankee Air Museum has a number of other old aircraft and historical items. The museum survived a horrific fire in 2004 in its previous home in an old wooden hangar at Willow Run, where quick action by volunteers saved their aircraft, but the museum lost more than $1 million in fixtures and equipment as well as irreplaceable artifacts, photos and books.

Renovating the schoolhouse is a new facet for the museum, and it is only awaiting the final hookup of utilities before its next chapter begins. Drews said it would be used for day-long educational programs, for groups like Boy Scouts, on aviation-related history programs.

Joe Hoffman, a Plumbers Local 98 retiree, said he has worked at the schoolhouse on and off since last fall. With him that day were fellow 98ers Ron Cope, Fred Cirilli, Joe Huffman and Norm Hill.

“I’ve mostly been running copper through the crawlspace,” Hoffman said. “I’m retired, I need to something to do once in a while. This seemed like a good cause and I wanted to help out. It’s a really nice building.”

THE RENOVATED Yankee Air Museum schoolhouse.