A 100-year-old schoolhouse in Lakeside has a new lease on life, thanks to owner Michael Barry and his long-time girlfriend, interior designer Lee dePaolo.

Once again as red as the ripening cherries, the historic building shines like a beacon on the shoreline of Flathead Lake. Inside, morning sunlight dapples across the refurbished original maple floors.

Barry, a distinquished-looking man with silver hair, relaxed with a cup of coffee in the front room of his schoolhouse home on Lakeside Boulevard.

"I feel the memories of my mom and dad when I'm here," he said with a smile.

A retired publisher of upscale magazines, Barry purchased the schoolhouse from his mother in 1990. His demeanor softens as he relates how his family began a new chapter in the history of the old rural school.

The Barry story begins in Great Falls where his mother, Jean, met and fell in love with his father, Don. Even though Don's career meant they would live in the Midwest, his mother married him with one thing well understood.

"When he retired, they would move back to Montana," Barry said.

In 1962, his father was at retirement age when Barry's mother took a trip to Flathead Lake where she fell hard for the old Lakeside school house with a spectacular lake view.

"She bought it without saying a peep to my father and set about remodeling it," Barry said.

When originally built in 1906, the building was a rectangle with the short sides parallel to Flathead Lake. Some years later, a rectangle stage was added on, forming a "T" at the back of the building.

Mrs. Barry had more in mind than just a retirement home for the historic schoolhouse. When she returned to Milwaukee, she told her husband that she intended to open a restaurant.

According the Barry, his dad pointed out that she knew nothing about that business. His mother's background was in designing and making clothing.

Barry recalled his mother's legendary response that ended the discussion.

"I fed you and the boys all these years and I hold a good party. I'm going to hold a party every night."

And that is exactly what she did, starting from Mother's Day 1963 through Labor Day for the next 26 summers. Her Red School House & Dining Room and Little Shop was a hit in the community.

Evening meals featured a hot entry while lunches offered a hot and cold selection.

"Often, people would finish lunch and stay a couple of hours and play bridge," Barry recalled. "She (his mother) would play, too."

Mrs. Barry was famous for her huge popovers with butter and homemade raspberry preserves, as well as Sunday brunch featuring silver-dollar pancakes, eggs and bacon and fruit.

Her culinary triumphs were meticulously presented on her onion pattern Staffordshire China and served by young women with a reputation for unblemished manners cultivated by Mrs. Barry.

"It was kind of like a finishing school," he said. "She taught them proper etiquette."

Lakeside area mothers would write, requesting interviews for their daughters up to two years in advance of a summer season.

Sadly, as with all great parties, the hour comes when the fun must end. On Aug. 26, 1990, Mrs. Barry served her last meal, then sold the property to her eldest son.

Michael Barry took his role as conservator to a new level in 2003.

As the mortar began to fail in the stone foundation, he realized the building needed stabilizing. After discussing the options with contractor Jack Bowerman, Barry decided to put in a basement rather than a more budget-friendly slab.

It proved a most fortuitous decision. During the excavation, workers found that water had eroded a large cavity beneath the building which could have given way, destroying the structure.

A foundation was built, preserving the original stone. With a fresh coat of cherry red paint, the outside of the building came alive with character.

"Little by little, Lee persuaded me that we should renovate the whole thing," he said.

A floor-to-ceiling remodel began with a pleasant surprise underfoot. Barry said that he assumed he would just replace the wood floors that his mother had stained mahogany in the fashion of the day.

"I had no idea what the wood was," he said. "We sanded in the closet and found this lovely maple."

He credited his partner, dePaolo, with guiding local craftsmen in the transformation of the interior. Her design created a home with Lakeside panache, while preserving the building's provenance as a turn-of-the-century schoolhouse.

dePaolo returned the ceilings to their original 12-foot height. In the process, she replaced the restaurant's old florescent lights with period-appropriate pendant fixtures found for her by Alpine Lighting.

A remote-controlled gas-fired potbellied stove is reminiscent of the one students must have huddled around in the depths of winter in the one-room schoolhouse.

dePaolo begins the tour in the remodeled countrified kitchen. Tall white cabinets by McBride Custom Cabinetry make use of the high ceilings.

"We have nice big cabinets to display the china," she said, holding up a piece of the blue Staffordshire.

A natural wood plate rack warms up the expanse of white cabinets. Granite countertops give add an up-to-date note along with the top-of-the-line Viking commercial stove framed above by a mantle.

dePaolo marveled that Mrs. Barry, as she always calls her, cooked the restaurant meals in a smaller than normal kitchen on noncommercial, harvest-gold appliances. The revamped space offers to-die-for accessories for entertaining.

"We have a warming drawer," dePaolo said. "She would have loved that."

The remodel pays a quiet homage to Mrs. Barry with white tile trimmed in harvest gold installed as a backsplash. At the edge of the expanded kitchen, a venerable old cabinet comes alive with fruit hand-painted on the doors by a local artist.

dePaolo lightened up a dark hallway leading to three bedrooms and a bath with yellow paint on the walls above custom-milled wainscoting painted white.

"It's in the old style of wainscoting," she said.

Off the hallway, five-panel doors in the schoolhouse tradition lead to the bedrooms and bath. Glass transoms above the doors transmit light as well as turn-of-the-century flavor.

To expand the small bedrooms, dePaolo replaced closets with antique armoires brightened with a fresh coat of white paint, highlighting accents with color. She brought end tables up from the cellar for new service in the guest bedrooms.

"We tried to keep a lot of Mrs. Barry's pieces," she said.

Two of her antique sewing boxes serve as nightstands in the master guest bedroom. dePaolo created a feature with an antique fireplace brought from Barry's office in Colorado.

"We brought it in to warm up the room," she said.

A former wood storage room became a walk-in closet in the master guest bedroom that once served as Mrs. Barry's room. dePaolo used an antique child's inkwell school desk as an easel to display a painting.

Guests to the room entitled "Library" find a clawfoot bathtub and pedestal sink in the early 1900s style. The designer tapped an old-fashioned paned window as part of a semi-wall to provide privacy for the toilet while letting light shine through.

dePaolo completes the tour in the sun porch, which was added to the building by Mrs. Barry to expand her restaurant seating. Airy wicker tables and chairs recall the days when customers lingered in the sunny space.

When the work was completed in Sept. 7, 2004, dePaolo and Barry threw a gala for 35 guests just as the finishing touches ended a year's labor.

"I was hanging my last painting as people were coming in," dePaolo said with a laugh.

In a few days, Barry's brothers Peter and Jonathan and other extended family arrive as a contingent of 17 for a family summer celebration.

Thanks to Barry and dePaolo, Mrs. Barry's tradition of elegant parties, along with 100 years of Lakeside history, continues in the cherry red schoolhouse on Lakeside Boulevard.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.