By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
As the dust rose from the rubble at the site of the old Whetstone school, one couldn’t help but think: dust to dust and ashes to ashes.
Longtime custodian of the building, Ron Bower, admitted, “I had to learn to say goodbye to a very dear friend.”
This week the building became the second razed in the Colonel Crawford School District. Former Whetstone student Terry Snyder admitted it was emotional seeing only the arch and front door of the school standing among the piles of bricks on Thursday morning.
“I graduated from Colonel Crawford but I started here in the first grade and then my girls went here, so it’s kind of special” Snyder said. “That’s all that’s there; it’s really hard to see. I hated to see her go and I’ve been here every day to watch her go down.”
Bower spent 27 years as custodian of the Whetstone building and another eight in what he called the role of “caregiver” after the district closed it. There isn’t anything about the history of the building or the old Whetstone school district he doesn’t know.
“Monday, Sept. 17, 1923,” Bower rattled off when asked about the first day of school in the building.
Whetstone began as a grade 1 through 8 building with students having to go elsewhere if they wanted to continue their education and get a high school diploma. The first Whetstone High School graduating class was 1929.
Bower was quick to note it was 2006 when classes were discontinued there and that Whetstone High School students went to North Robinson for two years beginning in 1959 before the final consolidation into Colonel Crawford was complete.
“But they still called themselves Whetstone (while going to North Robinson),” Bower said.
For Snyder, watching the building fall brought back a rush of memories from his school days. Asked to pick just one, he couldn’t.
“I actually have two: my first grade school teacher, and then my sixth grade school teacher who lived right next to us and I used get to ride to school with her,” Snyder said. “So those two teachers have been really special.”
Colonel Crawford Superintendent Todd Martin said the district would like to sell the property, but thus far there haven’t been any buyers come to the forefront. He anticipates the property may go up for auction.
The Sulphur Springs building was torn down earlier this fall. The district has already sold all but about 2.5 acres. Martin said the Liberty Township trustees have expressed interest in what remains and the district will consider turning the property over to the township.
Up next for demolition is the old North Robinson building last used as the Intermediate School. Martin anticipates demolition on it will begin this month.
“It’s going a lot faster than we ever dreamed,” Martin said.
Portions of the current high school will be torn down some time next fall. However, the new high school wing must first be completed on the William and Hannah School. Colonel Crawford High School students may actually start the 2015-2016 school year in the current building and then move to the new facility after school has started.
Plans are to convert a couple of classrooms at the current high school, which opened in 1961, into district administrative offices. Other portions of that building that will be kept and used include the cafeteria and kitchen, gymnasium, swimming pool and locker rooms plus the shop and industrial arts areas.