NEW GLASGOW – With ease, two excavators ate away at the brick walls and wooden floors of the former New Glasgow Junior High, crunching and smashing as they devoured. On occasion a torrent of brick would rain down.
“There goes two of my classrooms,” Chet Fleming said as he watched the school he once went to torn apart Monday.
Demolition officially started last week, but began in earnest Monday morning with a large portion of the main building dismantled.
“It’s a sad day,” said Fleming, who graduated from the school in 1958.
He pointed out where different classes were.
“That’s where they taught German,” he said, pointing to one that was open to view from the road.
He wasn’t alone in his reminiscing. Dozens of people, some teachers, some students, some simply curious, stopped by to see the building razed.
Muriel Palmer taught at the school for 29 ½ years. She remembers the classes, the science fairs – the students.
“There’s a lot of memories,” she said.
Her own five children had attended the school.
Peggy Burton, never went to the school herself, but remembers the hours over the years she spent waiting in front of the building for her son and daughter to get out of class more than 20 years ago.
Her son now lives in Florida and her daughter in Charlottetown. She’s been taking pictures as the demolition continues to keep them updated on what’s happening.
“I guess it’s progress,” said one woman as she watched.
A new Primary through Grade 8 school is going to be built on the property. It is scheduled to complete for the start of the 2014 school year.
Students from Temperance and Acadia and the New Glasgow Junior High who have been shuffled around for the duration of the demolition and construction will all go to it.
amacinnis@ngnews.ca
On Twitter: NGNewsAdam
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