HANSVILLE — Hansville is in Al Zachary’s blood. More than a century ago, a few pioneer families carved out a life on the peninsula’s northernmost point. They were fishermen, loggers and farmers, grinding out a living long before roads connected the town to the greater peninsula.

Among them was Hans Zachariasen, Al Zachary’s grandfather, who put down deep roots in the town that would bear his name.

For the last 23 years, Zachary has been the caretaker of a piece of that heritage, a 1912 house overlooking the town, which served as Hansville’s school.

In many ways, Hansville grew up in the house on the hill. A generation of pioneer children were tutored there. Later, it became the nerve center for the rapidly growing town.

Zachary may have saved the building from destruction two decades ago. Now, a year before its centennial, he’s ready to pass it on.

“I have too much to take care of,” Zachary, 65, said. “This place takes more than I can give it right now.”

Hansville school began as the Point No Point School, in the days of Zachary’s grandfather. It was housed a building close to the water, not far from the Point No Point lighthouse.

As the community blossomed, the school was moved into the one-room house on the hill in 1912. Its list of graduates is a “who’s who” of Hansville pioneer families: Ericksons, Hulsbys, Halvers and many more.

Teacher Naomi Lilquist arrived at the remote school by steamship in 1925. It was a rustic setting for her first teaching job, Lilquist wrote in an essay for the 1977 book, “The Way It Was In Kitsap Schools.”

Older children took turns carrying in wood and water, and completing household chores for a $5 monthly allowance. A pot-bellied stove heated the schoolhouse and warmed soup for lunches on cold days.

“Life in Hansville was both interesting and rewarding,” wrote

Lilquist, who later taught at the Eglon School. “The school was the center of community life … We were a closely knit, happy group of people.”

The date the school closed is buried somewhere in state archives, but by the 1950s Hansville children were attending schools in Eglon or Port Gamble.

The Hansville schoolhouse took on a new role. Community meals and meetings were held there. Longtime resident Joanne Erickson remembers an impromptu preschool starting. Parents took children to the schoolhouse for activities and planned field trips to Seattle. Eventually the Community Club made it its home.

Slowly, the town outgrew its community center and time took a toll on the building.

In the late 1980s, the club was faced with a decision, Erickson recalls. They could pay to remodel the weather-beaten schoolhouse or raise money for a new center. Practicality outweighed sentimental affection and fundraising began for the community center at Buck Lake.

“It was kind of sad to leave the old building,” Erickson said.

Al Zachary, who’d done maintenance on the schoolhouse for years, wasn’t ready to walk away.

“I knew the house was sound,” Zachary said. “The stuff that was kept dry was indestructible.”

Zachary bought the house from the club and put a crew to work remodeling the 1,700-square-foot building. They tore out old wiring and replaced windows and built new walls. In an attic, they added a dormer and a pyramid skylight.

Amid the reconstruction, Zachary was careful to protect relics of the old schoolhouse. Chalkboards still hang on walls and the original wood floor hasn’t changed.

“It was a labor of love restoring this,” he said. “We kept as much as we could.”

Zachary never lived in the house. He rented it out. Family members stayed there some years.

“There have been some real characters through here,” he said.