After 128 years, the red brick portion of Lexington Junior High School will be no more

LEXINGTON — The red brick portion of Lexington Junior High School has stood since 1894.

In the old days, students sat at wooden desks with inkwells. There were stoves in each of the six classroom, which were heated by coal.

The junior high, which had additions in 1930 and the 1950s, served as the home to all 12 grades until 1954.

It's coming down in September to make room for a new building for grades 7-12.

While it won't be there physically, it will remain a part of village history forever.

Bob Whitney certainly will never forget it. The record-setting school board member is a Lexington native and graduate.

He has been on school board since April 1964.

"The red brick was the first non-wood building in our school district," Whitney noted. "It's just a part of Lexington school history that I think should be preserved.

"When it comes down, it's gone. Other students going through will not know anything about the red brick."

Voters approved bond issue for new schools

In November 2018, district voters approved a bond issue for two new schools. The 7-12 building is scheduled to open Sept. 6.

A K-6 school will follow in the years to come.

The current high school is set for demolition next month.

"I've said this before: I and the entire administrative team and most of the faculty and staff who have ever worked there feel these buildings have served us very well for a long, long time," Superintendent Jeremy Secrist said. "They have given us everything they have.

"They were not built for today."

The junior high is cramped and does not have natural lighting. Technology is nowhere close to where it needs to be.

"We've been trying to put a Band-Aid on a gaping wound," science teacher Anne Petrie said.

Petrie just finished up her 20th year at the junior high.

"We're so cramped here," she said. "I don't think I'm going to miss this building. We'll be making new memories as we move up the hill."

Still, Petrie has a soft spot for the red brick.

"I live only two doors down from it," she said. "I'm very sad about the red brick. I wish we could have saved it."

Principal Taylor Gerhardt has been at the helm of the junior high for the past 10 years.

"This building has a special place in my heart," he said. "It's just such a great place. I fell in love with it."

Principal takes News Journal on tour

Gerhardt took a News Journal reporter and photographer on a tour of the grounds.

For the past seven or eight years, student artwork has decorated the ceiling tiles.

"We just tried to brighten it up," Gerhardt said.

In the 1899 portion of the building, original steps lead to upstairs classrooms. One was still in use this school year.

Two coal chutes remain from that section, an indicator of how the school was heated a long time ago.

The boilers are in the lowest part of the building.

"We call it the dungeon," Gerhardt said of the bleak surroundings, prompting him to say movie villain Freddy Krueger might be down there.

In the 1930 addition, three rows of bleachers from the remnants of the old gym are still in place and used as a study hall. The room has a high ceiling.

"For the life of me, I can't picture what it looked like," Gerhart said.

The old ticket window is covered by a Lexington Junior High pride banner.

Even the 1950 addition has issues. The cafeteria is in that portion. The building has cracks that have to be filled in routinely.

"There are times where you literally can see the sunlight come through," Gerhardt said.

Seventh-grade history teacher Tim Bacquet said the building has "personality."

He has been at the junior high for 29 years. Bacquet's classroom is in the red brick.

"That was the best built part of the building," he said.

Longtime board president has many memories of school

It was also Whitney's favorite part of the school. He can still remember the names of all of his teachers, even the janitor.

"I started my first-grade year in the red brick," Whitney said. "I guess it would have been September of 1941.

"It was a small class, and it was divided up. Mrs. Bahr was my teacher."

Whitney recalls making mischief.

"It was fun running up the stairs when you were supposed to walk," he said. "Some of the boys, including myself, would slide down the railing from the second floor to the first floor."

In second grade, Whitney's first teacher quit when her husband was called to serve in World War II.

The school year offered more opportunities for juvenile antics.

"If we didn't carry our lunch, we were supposed to walk to the cafeteria," Whitney said. "Needless to say, when they set us loose, we ran down the tunnel."

Where the agriculture teacher would be waiting.

"He'd grab you by the nape of your neck and scare the daylights out of you," Whitney said.

He recalled janitor Ira Dill was a one-man crew.

"He was proud of the school," Whitney said. "He kept those buildings in top-notch shape, clean. Everything worked, and if it didn't, he took care of it."

By fourth grade, Whitney and his class had moved to the 1930 portion of the building. Teacher Mrs. Bell's husband served in the military.

To help with the war effort, the school would hold scrap drives where metal was donated, then melted.

"We talked a lot about World War II," Whitney recalled. "We kind of knew what was going on in the world. At night, you'd listen to the radio. That was all we had."

Sixth grade meant a new teacher, the imposing Mrs. Snyder, who came to Lexington from a one-room country school.

Whitney said she needed to secure a certificate to teach at a public school.

Snyder was a disciplinarian.

"She wasn't bashful about using the wooden paddle on you," Whitney said.

Snyder was still teaching when Whitney obtained his law license. She even sent him a congratulatory letter.

It's memories like those that have made Whitney reluctant to say goodbye to the venerable school.

Pending demolition brings sadness

He laments the demolition of historic buildings.

"They come down for parking lots or whatever," Whitney said. "I think preservation is sometimes the better lane to take.

"I see it here in Mansfield. They tore down the old courthouse. It was a beautiful, beautiful building."

He will miss the junior high.

"I give a lot of credit to our custodial and maintenance people," Whitney said. "It has always been a good, shining, clean building for the children to learn."

Secrist understands Whitney's sentimentality.

"It's very bittersweet," the superintendent said of the move. "It's almost like a mourning process."

Bacquet agreed, saying he expected to shed a "few little tears" when leaving the building for the last time.

He did not start cleaning out his classroom until the end of the school year.

Like Whitney, Bacquet has strong Lexington roots. His sister is a retired first-grade teacher from Central Elementary School, while his younger brother is a current administrator.

"We were fortunate to get so many years out of this building," Bacquet said. "It's just been a wonderful experience."

Petrie offered a different viewpoint. She said she began packing up her things over spring break.

"You can imagine the amount of equipment a science teacher has," Petrie said. "I didn't want to get caught at the end of the school year."

She didn't expect to shed any tears.

"It's always seemed old to me," Petrie said of the building. "I'm ready to jump into the next century.

"It feels like we're starting anew. We've been looking forward to it for so long, and now it's here. At 20 years, it's nice to have a new beginning rather than looking toward the end."

Secrist agreed. It's why school officials and board member placed a bond issue on the ballot.

"We just felt as a community that it was time to provide an environment that is more suited to what they (students) need now," the superintendent said.

Parts of junior high will be incorporated into new school

While the junior high will be demolished, parts of it will be displayed at the new 7-12 building.

A bell that sits in front of the school, flanked by "Go Big Lex!" signs, is slated for the courtyard.

The shiny wood flooring from the red brick will find a home at the new board office.

The new building's junior high entryway will incorporate some of the best-preserved red bricks on a pillar.

"When we get the red brick down, they're going to wrap that pillar with the red brick," Secrist said.

The new building will offer amenities not found in the junior high.

"We try our best to light the place, but it's just dingy," Gerhardt said. "The new school will be bright. Each classroom will have a window.

"There will be so much more room to move and, more importantly, to learn."

Still, the students who have passed through the red brick and the rest of the school benefited from their time there.

"Our teaching staff and our educational aides have been so creative over the years," Gerhardt said. "They used what they had and have given an incredible education to the kids over the years."

Now it's onto new adventures.

"It's time," Gerhardt said. "It's time."

mcaudill@gannett.com

419-521-7219

Twitter: @MNJCaudill

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Lexington Junior High to close as district opens 7-12 building