Want to buy a slightly used High School????

[Racket_Man]

A couple of days ago I was crusin' round the interwebbies and put my old HS into Google just to see what would come up. I got the usual alumi association, a couple of articles/blogs and then this popped up in the results list:

http://www.cbgundaker.com/property/d...-MO-63111.aspx

As I have not really kept up with the times back in my home town it really surprised me (not really) that the Board of Ed finally closed it down (like half of the Public School system in STL) and put it up for sale (and a steal at the nice price of $2.5 million)

Problems: asbestos all over the place, lead based paint many layers thick, 8 years of neglect and a neighborhood that is going to shit and turning getto BUT it could be a great condo build/rehab. The old tennis courts/football field alone is 5 open acres. AND there is some newish building on what used to be the alternate athletic field on a hill.

I did some checking and found several other B of E schools also up for sale cheap.

About 25 years ago the B of E closed and sold one of the grade schools near my parents old house. some developer bought it, rehabbed the shit out of it and turned it into condos/apartments.

[EricKei]

A middle school around here has had a For Sale sign on it for a few YEARS now, but the local council only recently admitted that it WAS for sale at all...>_> They also had to do asbestos removal work, and it was in the news a while back because it got hit by some copper thieves, who apparently got apprehended.

[taxguykarl]

My middle school (at least the site) is an Olive Garden and my high school is a middle school.

[Arcus]

A couple of days ago I was crusin' round the interwebbies and put my old HS into Google just to see what would come up. I got the usual alumi association, a couple of articles/blogs and then this popped up in the results list:

http://www.cbgundaker.com/property/d...-MO-63111.aspx

That is a beautiful building. I hope someone finds a good use for it without knocking it down.

[Aethian]

The original high school in my town is a senior living center now.

[bhskittykatt]

My uncles bought an old schoolhouse for $1200 (they live way out in the middle-of-nowhere). They turned it into a massive workshop. Though it was decidedly smaller than your old HS.

It has turrets. If I had the money I would buy it and turn it into a fortress. For, like, fortress things.

[Racket_Man]

That is a beautiful building. I hope someone finds a good use for it without knocking it down.

I agree. very turn of the 19th century art deco'ish very solidly built.

It has turrets. If I had the money I would buy it and turn it into a fortress. For, like, fortress things.

The nickname for most of its life was THE CASTLE (and in this picture you can see why)

[lordlundar]

That looks like the place Toy Soldiers was filmed at.

[Ben_Who]

My old high school went up for sale some time ago, which is the problem with old buildings on the National Register of Historic Places - you can't tear them down, but you can't afford to occupy them, even if they aren't full of asbestos, rats, and leaks. What usually winds up happening is they sell the property to anyone with $1 and a bond to renovate it, which can run seven digits.

My high school got off light; the town still owns it, so the goal is to lease it out to someone who can fix it up for them.

To be honest, we didn't have our classes in the gorgeous old 1910 brick building with the clock tower and the curved flatiron face; we had them in the 1966-era fiberglass "New Building" propped weakly behind it against the hellish New England winters, where the classrooms that were a hotbox on Labor Day would be meat lockers by Thanksgiving. They've long since torn that horrible thing down, and how I wish I could have driven the bulldozer. Meanwhile, the gorgeous 1910 building, which was the home to ancillary programs like Music, Drama, and Drivers' Ed, grew increasingly decrepit year after year until it looked like an old mill ready to be condemned.