School Board Building For Sale at Auction, April 25, 2017

[cmager]

I would like to see a J.C.Penney outlet store and a Sears Auto Repair Center on that site. If there's any left over room we could "shoe horn" in a Lakewood Juvenile Shoe store. (couldn't resist that )

...with Mr. Katz as your shoe salesman extraordinaire!

[Stan Austin]

I think---- I remember him!

[mjkuhns]

School Board member Ed Favre spoke about this briefly, at this evening's Lakewood Democratic Club meeting.

Of the pending auction, he said it will not force the board's action and "we can turn anything down."

Regarding speculation about undisclosed decisions, he said "there's no done deal," and invited one and all to bring questions and opinions to him personally. I don't know if he'll be checking in here — I'm sharing these remarks on my own initiative — but he has public contact information. http://www.lakewoodcityschools.org/Board/Members/14

He also reminded people that the walk-through is 9:30 a.m., Friday, March 31.

[mjkuhns]

A small group attended the walk-through this morning; I don't know for certain, but I got a sense that not everyone was just a curiosity seeker, either.

It was a good tour for those who were, though. I'll try to post some photos later.

[jackie f taylor]

I just got home after touring the buildings, there was about 10 of us. It was not like visiting an 1880's school, 98% of the original building was covered over by years of remodeling and reconfiguration to make it workable for the BOE. Nothing was recognizable, except the main stairway entrance, that was grand. One guide said, ideally, the buyer would take it back to it's original configuration and make it their own. Will and how can that happen? I went, I saw, and now I see.

[mjkuhns]

I have nearly 90 photos from this tour. Most of them are, individually, probably dull; the overall impression left by the School Board building interior is basically one generic modern office space after another, linked up in an incomprehensible labyrinth. (I presume people learn their way eventually.)

That said, I think that as a whole it could merit publication. It's an example of publicly owned space that is often out of public view; those of us on the tour were essentially told go anywhere you want, take photos of anything you want. Plus, whatever happens to the building, these particular spaces will cease to exist, and that seems worth documenting.

If there's interest in the whole set, perhaps I could create a photo blog. If someone will kindly help.

For now, here's a sampling.


As Mr. Taylor noted, the grand staircase is the prize exception among the rooms of anonymous office stuff. It's tough to capture in a single photo, but here's a glimpse.


Innumerable file cabinets in this place—but this one was made out of wood. (How old is this thing?)


The inside of this safe is one place I didn't go. But I actually didn't even try—maybe I should have.


While office stuff is the prevailing feature of the building's interior, stuff might be the feature which left the strongest impression on me. This if nothing else seems like it might make sharing all the photos worthwhile; I'm not sure anything else will truly illustrate the rooms packed full of stuff.


More than one person on the tour speculated on the labor that moving all this will involve.

For my part, I began thinking about a particular loose end from last year. I imagine that it's not remotely a practical idea, not least because the school board is trying to sell buildings rather than their contents. This said, walking through these rooms I couldn't help thinking that it might make a fine location for a certain television series which I adore.
http://lakewoodobserver.com/forum/viewt ... =7&t=22923

[Kate McCarthy]

When I toured the high school pre-demo, I stopped to look at the original facade while heading up to the dance room in the overhang addition. I wonder if this facade had not been obliterated by the dance room-north gym addition, there would have been more of a desire to renovate. I just remember when I looked at it, I kept thinking of the last scene in Planet of the Apes when Charlton Heston comes upon the Statue of Liberty.

[Lori Allen _]

I believe that the BOE could really earn brownie points among most Lakewoodites if they would auction this piece of history with the stipulation that it cannot be sold off for demolition and development. With the exception of members of the so-called "Summers Clan", I think most would like to see this building saved, while also being functional.

There are numerous functions this piece of history could serve, while still being saved. Offices or maybe even a charter school come to mind. Either one would be ideal, in my opinion.

From what was posted here regarding the tour guide's comments, it would seem that preservation is at least on the table. If that is true, that is great, but only if it is put in writing.

Since historic preservation seems to have taken the focus of this thread, I would add that Cleveland, and Lakewood in particular seem to do rather poor work regarding the preservation of historical or "old" structures, some examples that come to mind are:

- Detroit Theatre (bulldozed for McDonald's)
- Robert Russell Rhodes Estate at Lakewood Park (bulldozed)
- Kundtz Castle on Edgewater (bulldozed for Kirtland Lane)
- Tarrymore Estate (Detroit & Bunts, bulldozed)
- William Maile Mansion (bulldozed)
- The original Francis Wagar House at Detroit & Warren (bulldozed)

And the list goes on. If you want to see what I mean, you can go to http://www.clevelandmemory.org/lakewood/ and see how many of our original mansions and estates of Lakewood Pioneers have been destroyed.

If you go to New England, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the like, you will see countless houses from the 1600's and 1700's still standing. In England, you will see churches and castles still standing from the 1100's and 1200's. Obviously, preservation can happen if you have leadership with the right mentality.

Although (much to some people's chagrin) I am one of the harshest critics of Mike Summers, I will say that this mentality of "tearing everything down" far precedes him. However, I will add that he has arguably been one of the most fierce enemies of historic structures, in my humble opinion.

The question that remains now is: how can we hold the BOE accountable and ensure the building's preservation? I think most of us agree that we do not want this piece of Lakewood history to fall victim to the wrecking ball as the above-listed structures have.

[jackie f taylor]

great photos Matt, thank you.

[jackie f taylor]

Matt, I don't know how I could help, but with your direction, perhaps I would be willing to lend a hand to assist in some way to post, publish your photos of the BOE building? Also the Curtis Building Property, can't we have a tour of that property, that has to be saved from demolition, I understand either the city of Lakewood owns it or the CCF, why is it sitting vacant? What are they waiting for? a better offer? Given a choice to live in the Curtis building or the Silver Coast apartments, HANDS DOWN, the Curtis building. Maybe I'm just rambling on, but I am serious and furious about what is happening to Lakewood.

I spent my teen years living on Lorain Avenue, between Fulton and W 38th street, 1964. There were old building up and down Lorain Avenue, original vintage building, now there all gone, a drug store, a dry cleaners, an old bar, Walt's Friendly Tavern, a hardware store, a restaurant, now there is a Hollywood video building sitting in it's place, now it's vacant, they want to build a McDonalds there, what a rape of injustice.

[mjkuhns]

Thank you! I will get all of the photos posted online somewhere and let you know.

I think your long-term perspective is very valuable. Lakewood isn't transformed by the loss of one classic building, or even a handful of them. But decades of this, and of replacing them with anonymous strip-mall boxes, will eventually add up.

[Lori Allen _]

We have already lost too many historical buildings and houses in Lakewood.

Since most, but not all of our School Board members are members of the "Company", I'm sure they will do nothing to save the historic value of Lakewood's first schoolhouse.

The question of the day is: What Summers and Extended Company "friend" will get the property for more condos?

[mjkuhns]

For now, I have placed all my walk-through photos on flickr. (Well, aside from two or three that were badly out of focus.)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/38820145@ ... 2252485385

[jackie f taylor]

That sounds great, I will google "Buffalo" to see the beauty, they should have saved Euclid, Chester, Carnegie avenues, can you imagine how unique that would be, idiots.

[mjkuhns]

Bump.

Just a reminder, April 25 is tomorrow!