The old Lourdes High School will (finally) come down in 2024

Dec. 16—ROCHESTER — Denny Nigon tells a story to describe just how much his life and the old Lourdes High School were intertwined.

When Nigon was in eighth grade, he was a student at St. Francis of Assisi School — at least supposed to be. A new wing was being added to St. Francis because the school was overcrowded, so Nigon's class was moved to Lourdes High School at 621 W. Center St.

"I tell people I spent five years in high school. They kind of look at me strange. But I spent a lot of my life in that building," Nigon said.

No one spent more. Nigon, who graduated from Lourdes in 1964,

began teaching and coaching football at Lourdes four years later.

Except for stints as Rochester Catholic Schools president and development director, much of the entirety of his 43-year career was spent in that building — including as athletics director, dean of students, assistant principal and principal.

Nigon, 77, has wonderful memories of the old school. The dedication and commitment to Catholic education by the Franciscan sisters, who made up the bulk of the Lourdes teaching staff then, stands out "when I sit and think about my life."

"They come into my mind quite often," Nigon said.

But the memories about the old building are less golden, less luminous. Nigon was there as a principal when the building began to fall apart, when the ceiling began to crack, when the plumbing became so old and outdated that it was hard to find parts.

"Will I miss it when it goes down? I don't know," Nigon said. "I go out and look at the

new school (on 19th Street Northwest),

and I'm just in awe of the campus."

The new campus isn't that new anymore. It was

in 2013, a decade now, that the old Lourdes graduated its last class and was shuttered as a school

to make way for the colossus that is located in northwest Rochester.

Like an athlete who played well past his prime or the fat lady who refuses to sing, there is a feeling that the old Lourdes has lingered on the scene for way too long and it's time to tear down this baby to make way for progress.

"People will say to me: 'Are you saddened because they are razing the building?'" said the Rev. Monsignor Gerald Mahon, pastor at the co-Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. "I say, 'you should raze it soon, because it hasn't been beautiful for a long time. Nobody wants to see the thing falling apart."

Last week, the fate of the old school finally came into focus a decade after

Mayo Clinic bought the school, parking lot and land from Rochester Catholic Schools for $9 million.

The school will be torn down next year along with several other downtown buildings to make way for

Mayo's vast $5 billion redesign of the Rochester campus.

It's common to look at buildings as people. The old Lourdes was once young and vigorous and less of a pain.

It was once the heartbeat of Rochester Catholic Schools' education, culture and community in downtown Rochester. Lourdes opened in 1942 and additions were added in the early 1960s and mid-1980s. Old, graying PB articles describe first days of school, homecomings and graduations.

It was where life-long friends were made. Like now, the articles describe Catholic school leaders' preoccupation with increasing student enrollment and how to make tuition affordable for families.

"The people are what I remember," Nigon said. "The building is a building. I love my home, but what makes it home is my wife and our family."

Nick Powers, a 2005 graduate, met his wife Kelly at Lourdes.

"My strategy was to pick on the girls I liked, so I picked on her the most, and for some reason, it worked," Powers said.

Attending Lourdes was part of a family tradition. Powers' grandfather attended the school. What he remembers are the teachers, one teacher in particular. Mary Spring is the school's principal now but she started at Lourdes in 2003 as a teacher.

Powers, president of Powers Ventures, a restaurant, catering and event center business, said he suffered from dyslexia, a condition that garbled the information in his brain. It made the "structure of school" difficult, a kind of prison. One time, Powers failed a test "miserably" and Spring called him to her office. Powers thought he was going to get lectured.

"She actually took the time to study with me, and I took the test and improved," Powers said. "I'm sure a lot of teachers don't realize (the impact they have) just because they do it all day. I still remember it — how many years later."

What's important about buildings is the culture and community created and sustained in them, Mahon said.

Mahon, a 1963 graduate of Lourdes, attended his 60th class reunion last September. He

had just returned from a trip to Africa

and invited his classmates to donate to the refugee camps the church supported.

An estimated $13,000 in donations was raised on the spot among the 30 classmates who attended the reunion. The community, the culture, the camaraderie remained intact — indeed was stronger than ever — decades after his class's graduation, Mahon said.

"We took everything out of it that had any significant value," Mahon said, noting that the "magnificent stained-glass windows" that once illuminated the old school's library were placed at the entrance of the new Lourdes High School. "We have a beautiful state-of-the-art building."

"It's been empty for 10 years. It's not beautiful," Mahon said about the old school. "A new life, a new building, razing it with a new future for Mayo is perfect."