During season eight of HGTV’s Home Town, featuring the renovation of Jones College’s Old President’s House on the Ellisville campus by two of JC’s famous alumni, Ben and Erin Napier of Laurel, Jones College President Dr. Jesse Smith announced a new program to be named in the couple’s honor.
An old factory building currently houses maintenance and housekeeping departments, along with storage, will be transformed into a centralized home for training future craftsmen to help rebuild hometowns across the country. It is called the Erin and Ben Napier School of Design and Building Construction.
“Watching them and seeing the growth that happens in the towns where their show goes is impressive, and we’ve learned a lot,” said Smith. “Those trades and those craftsmen’s skill sets are art and a craft that’s been lost. We want to reemphasize and teach those skills in a centralized location.”
The vision for the Erin and Ben Napier School of Design and Building Construction is simple but not easy.
“We aim to build and rebuild our home towns across America by teaching the skill sets that can transform a vacant piece of land into a beautiful home or commercial space or skills that can refresh and renovate spaces that need love,” shared Smith. “And those needs are in every community. And the beauty of it is that it is replicable.”
The Napier’s emotional response to the announcement during their show sparked support for the facility with donations through the Jones College Foundation. Smith anticipates the $14 million project will be partially funded through federal and state money, with private contributions driving the project. The Napiers emphasized the difficulty of finding local craftsmen while renovating houses in the Laurel area during the announcement of this project.
“We are about 564 jobs short in our district in the construction trades industry, which consists of Clarke, Covington, Greene, Jasper, Jones, Perry, Smith, and Wayne Counties,” Smith explained. “Some people might not think construction trades make a great career, but most of these entrepreneurs do very well, and it’s a great life. We depend on these craftsmen and artisans here to keep the college going. We’re building for the future.”
The new school will offer programs in Computerized Design, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Painting, Foundations, Plumbing, Framing, Roofing, Electrical, Masonry, HVAC, Carpentry, Metalworking, Plastering, and Stonework. Many of these programs are currently available for students. However, Smith said having the programs in a centralized location encourages students to collaborate on projects.
One of the first projects the students in Napier’s school will collaborate on will be building cottages on campus for student housing.
“Students will be the ones designing and building these cottages from start to finish,” shared Smith. But first, students will start a pilot project utilizing programs already on campus, which will renovate a home adjacent to the campus that Jones College recently purchased.
“One of our graduates from 1955 requested the college purchase her home and put it to good use, so we did and we are,” shared Smith. “Students will begin renovating that home this fall and use it as a pilot project to better understand all the pieces needed to make a renovation a success.”
Classes in the new building are expected to begin in the fall of 2026 when the 35,435-square-foot facility is expected to be completed. To create the new Napier’s School, an additional 18,500 square feet will be added to the current 19,000-square-foot former factory building.
“We are so honored,” said Erin Napier during the college’s “Live Viewing” of the episode when the announcement was made on their show. “We love Jones so much, and to know this is going to be in Jones’ future plans, thank you! This is critically important because trade is vital to us. We struggle to find talented people who do things like plaster work, for example.”
To learn more about the Erin and Ben Napier School of Building visit JCJC.edu.
*Photos courtesy of JCJC
