Demolition of Galion's 1917 High School building

Demolition of Galion's 1917 High School building

These pictures start on June 26th, 2008

For the previous accounts, as reported by the Galion Inquirer, to save the building [Click Here].

Demolition of the former Galion High School includes leveling and planting grass similar to this photo of how the Galion Middle/Junior High was finished.

Pictures from July 1st, 2008 below.

Above: Keeping the dust down... kind of.
Right: An architectural focal point soon to be shattered.
Below: All the Folding bleachers, Score board and Backstop supports never were salvaged... for their intended purpose.

Scroll down the left column, middle and right in that order to animate one of the more memorable moments. Start by knocking that one support out in the middle. .....Well, you had to be there.

Above: More bleachers. Right: The front office of the "Devastator".
Below: Can this be likened to a couple of vultures picking away at a carcass with a skin of rubber membrane? But, they worked as a team on this big steel reinforced concrete beam.

Picture at right: First try at pulling the columns over. Nope!, not yet.

Here, do something with this thing.

The bricks fly as nothing is left except the steel reinforced concrete columns. The column will only wiggle.

Not to be denied, the operator finally went around to the street side and pushed the big columns over into the rubble inside. No picture of that.

Weithman Bros. of Galion built this addition strong to last a good long time. More could be said about that. We all have to move on.

The view of the Church Street entrance just before the tall tinted glass windows were smashed. Things are going fast at this stage.

1st and 2nd pictures: Taking a walk around the building, July 1st, to North Union Street shows the lobby hallway outside the Gymnasium is next to go. Don't worry about the big mosaic Tiger head because it is slated to be put in the new building.

3rd picture: After the the addition, the students would congregate here before dashing in before the last bell. The same was true for the 1917 portion. The wide concrete walk and stairs in front of the main entrance was their place to talk.

Want a brick? There will be only 250 bricks prepared for purchase in the fall. If you think this is a pretty small number, you might want to call the Galion Board of Education office at 419-468-3432 and check if you can be on a list.

Setting up work for tomorrow -July 2nd. Bring in a bigger crane and loosen some more mortar seems to be the plan.