HUNTSVILLE — After nearly a year of community meetings, several failed elections and finally a successful election to reallocate funds, Huntsville School District and its patrons can finally see the fruits of its labor.

Over the summer Nabholz construction began the demolition of Old Main. Old Main was originally built in 1928 as a state vocational high school. In 1957, it became Huntsville’s high school. When Huntsville’s current high school campus was built in 1989, Old Main became part of the middle school campus.

Old Main has been a landmark for many for many years and several residents from the area and some former students from other states gathered to tour and remember the building one last time this summer. Many have taken a little piece of the building to their homes, with many of the large stones being given to patrons.

The front porch of the building along with several large hand-hewn sandstone rocks were preserveed to become a part of the new building, melding the old with the new.

The new facility will cover approximately 18,000 square feet where Old Main once stood, and it has changed the look and landscape of the “Hill” tremendously. The tangled overhead web of utility wires that connected the buildings on the Hill are now underground, sidewalks have been lowered to be all on one level, several tons of dirt were moved to flatten the top of the Hill for the building.

The new building will house administration for the middle school as well as sixth grade, art, family consumer science (formerly known as home economics) and various other overflow classrooms.

According to Superintendent Shelby Sisemore, the project is only four days behind schedule, an amazing feat given the recent large rain amounts in the district.

“We are still set to have the building turned over to us July 1 [2010],” Sisemore stated with a large grin.

A “mock-up” wall can be seen on the site, which shows what the new building will look like on the outside. A cream colored lower wall will lead into a red brick wall to tie the new building into the existing red brick courtyard campus,and white trimmed large grouped windows will bring to mind the familiar look of the Old Main. A courtyard area will connect the large new and existing old parts of campus as well as the red brick cafeteria leading to what the architects have expressed as a more cohesive feel to the campus instead of the disconnected feel the campus has now.

The sandstone HomeEconomics building will remain on campus. It currently houses special education classes and the nurse’s office.

It is to be updated to meet the needs of special needs students this summer as part of the districts ongoing upgrades. This will be partially funded by the stimulus money the district is to receive.

Other upgrades will be done at all campuses and the athletic facilities as well as to the district’s two safe room buildings.

Correction

An article that ran on Oct. 22 in the White River Valley News, New garden, West Fork council approves Heritage Garden project had the following errors: In the last paragraph, Susan Hook was not in attendence for Master Gardeners, but was with Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP). Liability for the event goes to SCSEP. Also, Frances Heim is a member of West Fork Environmental Association, not West Fork Environmental Agency.

News, Pages 1 on 11/04/2009

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