Exterior demolition began yesterday on the Burnham Building, a Sylvania landmark since it went into service as a high school in 1927. It will be razed to make way for a new elementary school.
A seven-man crew from Klumm Brothers Excavating of Spencer Township was at the site on Monroe Street and Judi Young Drive with a crane and wrecking ball and other heavy equipment.
The workers demolished Burnham's 80-foot-high smokestack, removed architectural artifacts from the front of the facade, and began tearing down the rear of the structure.
Their foreman, Bob Klumm, said interior demolition work had been going on most of the week.
He described the old building as extremely solid - "like a bomb shelter."
The structural piers inside were made of concrete poured into forms from the roof.
The concrete probably was hauled up there in buckets, he said.
Mr. Klumm said that at least a dozen people had stopped by during the week to reminisce about their school days in the building, which in recent years has housed the Sylvania schools' administrative offices, special-education classrooms, and the offices of two community service groups.
"I gave them mementos," Mr. Klumm said. "I gave one guy the aluminum letters that spelled 'Burnham.' He said he went to school here and would make something out of them."
Burnham graduated its last class in 1960. Students transferred to the new Sylvania High School on Silica Drive, which is Sylvania Northview today.
The district's administrative offices moved into new quarters on Holland-Sylvania Road last month.
The Burnham site will become the location of a new Maplewood Elementary. The current Maplewood, which is next door to Burnham, will be razed and its site turned into parking and landscaping once its replacement opens next year.
The demolition crew hadn't been scheduled to work this weekend, but Mr. Klumm said he wanted to make headway on the project before another blast of snowy weather arrived.
The National Weather Service yesterday posted a winter storm watch for the Toledo area from Sunday evening through Monday evening.
Agency forecasters predicted freezing rain and 1 to 2 inches of snow in Toledo.
Mr. Klumm said tearing down Burnham was the logical course of action. The building contained no insulation and its steam heating system was inefficient.
The building had an elevator, but accessibility for the disabled was still problematic.
Burnham's World War II memorial to graduates who served has been relocated to Sylvania's city hall, and a limited number of bricks from the building will be offered for sale.
Contact Carl Ryan at:
carlryan@theblade.com
or 419-724-6050.
First Published February 21, 2010, 12:37 p.m.
