You Might LOL At The Sign On This Historic Montana Building
When I moved to Montana in June 2021, I stayed with family in the Bitterroot Valley for a while until I found an apartment in Missoula (which was an experience akin to playing whack-a-mole without a mallet.) Until my apartment search came to a close, I used to take Eastside Highway north to Bell Crossing, and I would drive by this building:
The Brooks Hotel is a Victorian-style home built in the 1890s, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places almost 90 years later. But this article isn't about the building itself, it's about this sign, which is in front of the building at the 4-way stop intersection of Eastside Highway and Willow Creek Road.
Wait, what?
I've driven by this thing so many times and never gave it a second thought until recently. Was it a typo? A joke? Shouldn't it be "Lolo Schools?" Then I went into Google Maps and found what it replaced.
It says "Christmas & Gifts." Was this picture taken in December? Doesn't look like it.
I had to know why, so I asked the owner and director of LOL Schools in Corvallis, Nora Cassens:
Actually we are L.O.L. Schools; we have "Laugh Out Loud" after-school program, we have a "Ladder Of Learning" preschool program, and we have "Lots Of Love" childcare program.
Three different programs that all start LOL, we are L.O.L. Schools.
Cassens founded LOL Schools in the Brooks building in 2014, taking over the property from its previous usage as a year-round Christmas gift shop. She currently has close to 100 kids in her programs, with the majority of them being pre-school students. If you're in Ravalli County and are interested in after school care, daycare, or preschool, you can contact Nora HERE.
And feel free to let a chuckle out when you drive by the old Brooks Hotel. You're not the first to do so, and you likely won't be the last.