Terrific Photo Gallery of Lakewood High School’s ‘Old Building,’ Set for Demolition Later This Year

1. It’s a shame that such a terrific old building is being torn down. The officials for Lakewood Schools should be ashamed that they let the high school building fall into such disrepair. I guess they were so sure that taxpayers would fall for the new building idea, they decided to let the old high school fall into a disgraceful state of disrepair! I guess such disrepair was an excuse to keep the kids in a bunch of trailers for these past years. Lakewood you were duped, you will never replace the character of what you had with the old high school. I would imagine there won’t be any farewell tours of the old high school?

   Three years to rebuild the high school? That’s three more years that the kids have to pay the price for a very poor process for rebuilding a high school. Shame on you Lakewood!

2. Why is Lakewood constantly tearing down all these great old schools. Lakewood is a city full of history, they should be proud of that, boast it, and improve these schools and make them better to keep the city reviving. In a town thats average home age is 100 years old and they help the resedents maintain their aging properties, why then dont they do this on their schools as well. They tore down mckinley, they have torn down madison and harding and rebuilt harding and also tore down hayes and rebuilt it new. Why cant we RESTORE?!?!

3. Why can you not save the chairs and lockers? I know sometimes it is cost efficient to replace rather than restore with schools but I do feel the budgets created never calculate in general maintenance and repairs to sustain schools these days and it leads almost every school district around here locally to end up in this position. As a community we need to fight harder to ensure our tax dollars fund maintenance!!!

4. does anyone know if any items are for sale prior to demolition? some great memories from the industrial arts section.

5. They held an auction and sold off a lot of items, I believe they are done with the auction now.

6. Keep in mind people. Things aren’t like they used to be. Everyone wants to keep up old historical buildings but no one wants to pay for them. Same goes with St. James. These things were built before minimum wage and child labor laws. The cost of fixing old workmanship like this is way more expensive. Back when I went to school in the 90’s they kept trying to pass taxes to fix these building and the voters turned it down. Taking a class in the old building was horrible. Try the 4th floor with no AC. You probably get more complaints from parents saying their kids are being tortured because its so hot. They rebuilt the pool in the 90’s and other parts since. These buildings can’t last forever no matter how sad it is to see them go.

7. @Russell, I have a hard time believing that $100 million dollars wouldn’t have covered all the maintenance and repairs for this building. In fact, I’m willing to bet that the maintenance and repairs would have cost a fraction of $100 million dollars if the funds were actually spent wisely and not spent “Free ATM Machine Money” style. I guess it’s not really the taxpayers fault though, the school board will just keep reintroducing the levy if it fails and accusing anyone who votes against it of hating children. North Royalton city schools have tried to shove through the same levy, what, three times now? How much you want to bet attempt #4 is right around the corner?

8. Lakewood has done a wonderful job maintaining the old school for as long as it could have been maintained. We have needed a new High School for 20 years! I can’t wait for the boost the whole city will get when all the schools are new! The new middle schools and elementary schools are energy efficient and safer for children and staff. Just because it is old doesn’t make it better. The new parts of Lakewood High School finished a few years ago are beautiful. I am sure the rest of the building will be just as nice. That is why I voted for the Levy.

9. The “old building” was pretty much all of my high school career. My homeroom was 423 and then the Tryout Theater my senior year and I also spent 2 years in Commercial art, way downstairs by the wood shop and print shop. It’s sad to think it’s just going away. I haven’t looked yet, but I do hope someone got pictures of all the paintings that were on the walls.

10. I did not get photos of the paintings and murals, those were all taken down, and the Lakewood Alumni Foundation is cataloging all the murals. They are not being destroyed or thrown away. I am not sure if they have plans to relocate them in the new building.

11. Thanks, Kira. I’m glad that they will be saved somehow. They were pretty funky, 60’s stuff, but they were full of character and I knew that previous students had painted them. It would just be a shame if they were just turned to so much rubble to be scooped up and deposited in the landfill. Lots of memories for so many of us….

12. poop

13. Some of the items may be in such a state of disrepair they are no longer usable. These buildings were built nearly 100 years ago and it is simply not cost effective to renovate. Of course the committees have considered that. We need buildings that will provide safe electrical, plumbing, and air quality in a 21st century environment. These buildings have served us well, and I’ll be sad to see them go, but the future Lakewood students will be better served.

14. Why is it that you guys are tearing down these old schools that are historical land marks geeze the schools are named after presidents and you say it is gonna be better I don’t think so

15. You people are crazy! The cost of repair of a building that old would be 110 percent more than it’s worth. Full of asbestos and yet you want your kids to suck it up. Ohio prisons are nicer than our schools and yet you think they are crazy to get a new school building. With that mentality best of luck with your property taxes.

16. I remember taking Horticulture and having the use of the “greenhouse” back there….Wonderful memories….Sad to see it go.

17. Wow, 30 years goes by quick! I remember rewiring the Planetarium in 1984, the old wires were all cracked and a few planets were not working. Wonder how long they used it?

18. I remember going to classes in this building it’s to.bad that such bright classrooms and hallways has been let go so bad that it looks like an asylum from some horror movie. WHY… It would cost far less to restore a landmark than build another building. Hopefully whatever they build in its place does the school some justice ’90 alumni. ALWAYS A RANGER.

19. Also think of all the money that goes out of these old buildings that were built with no energy codes in place. The money saved in utility cost surely offsets the initial cost of construction.

20. Home room was on 4th floor just to haul butt to the new building and then back to wood shop in the basement. Good memories. Don’t forget the L-room.

21. ASBESTOS… Was found and kept quiet until about 2001. Rather then dealing with asbestos the district allowed deterioration as dipicted above.

22. This Makes me so sad to see such a fine old building left to die a slow death. We just don’t appreciate our history in this country. We could take a lesson from Europe where you can still work and live in buildings that are 100,200 300 years old and older. Ya it cost money and effort but what price to we put on our history?

23. I wonder how many of you still live in Lakewood?? well, i stayed and raised my family here. My kids deserve a better building…without asbestos. the cost of asbestos removall is no joke. we can’t change how they built it. slightly sad to say goodbye, but happy future kids will be in a safer, newer, better environment to learn.

24. I graduated from Lakewood High School. There were 900 in my graduating class. The next year they brought the 9th grade up from the junior highs. I was so glad to miss that. My parents both went to Lakewood High School – Jack T. Stoney and Patricia Whipp. The building they attended was still there when I went. The not so new additions (1967) were built around the original structure which I remember contained the swimming pool building. Just enjoying walking down memory lane. Times change and we all move on! Goodbye LHS!

25. Mom015 you are right on point. Remember when the city sold this whole rebuilding process years back it was clearly stated that not a dime was going to come out of the taxpayers pockets? Haha! Guess they fooled everyone!

26. I went to LHS, (Class of 1978). My parents went to LHS (Class of 1956, 1957). I used to imagine my parents walking through the same halls I did. It’s definately easier on the city officials to tear down a school they had no attachment to. Most communities prohibit tearing down historical land marks. (Thank goodness for that). Lakewood used to have some of the nicest housing/buildings. Sad to see the city deteriorate.

27. Security needs, electrical and technological needs, and energy efficiency are some of the primary reasons to replace rather than repair school buildings. This one is also filled with the known carcinogen asbestos. Not many of us still live in caves or log cabins. The old malls are being torn down and replaced with modern buildings. Do school children deserve an unsafe environment because of some misplaced emotional attachment by adults to a building they haven’t been in in 30 years?

28. The state gives more money for rebuilding schools then it does for restoring them. It is all about the money. One reason I love Europe is because there are so many old buildings. Sad Lakewood has changed so much.

29. I often wonder how many people who are opposed to the reconstruction actually have children who go to Lakewood City Schools? I have 2 kids in the school system, one who until May went to one of the old elementary schools and one in one of the brand new middle school buildings. I also went to Lakewood myself in all the older schools including having classes in the rooms shown above. As a homeowner of a century home in Lakewood, a parent of kids in the school system, and a current involved citizen (not someone who moved away and hasn’t actually been inside the high school for 30 years), I am VERY happy about the reconstruction.

30. I graduated from LHS in 2006, sister in 2009, both of my grandmother’s went here in the 40’s as well as my uncles and aunt in the 70’s. It’s sad to think that the buildings in photos I have from family from before the north gym was added will be gone and that the classrooms and halls my friends and family traversed will no longer be there. I don’t agree that the tear down is the right thing to do and I more recently attended LHS. I guess that my main issue is that there seemed to be no problem taking out the asbestos in the “newer” building while I was still there in the early 2000’s or fixing what myself and countless others considered to be the poorly architected part of the school which was newer than the “old building” to begin with. What does that tell you about newer construction these days?

    Our society is so fascinated with what’s “new and shiny”and how we can quickly get it that we lose the history in which got us there to begin with. Yes, I may have an emotional attachment to a building that could probably be saved rather than demolished but I’ve also had emotional attachments to ailing family members and/or friends and that doesn’t mean you kick them to the curb when they are old or sick either.

31. Change is good, well sometimes! Going to be sorry that nothing could be done with these old buildings, except toss them away for new material! Class of ’75 my home room was 406 and next to the stairs, flying off to 1st period on the 1st floor of the new building, was not my idea of having fun! lol Home Making class, Typing & Science classes were had in same! Second class for a 4 year tour, my Middle school got tore down & changed places with Madison school (Harding)
    So many memories back there, with friends & teachers! Some still living and a lot just missing! Tour is going on December 6th, 2014 10 -3 pm Some of these pictures help, but I believe there are places, we won’t be able to view, because of safety issues! Worked in the LRC & Old Cafeteria! Sang in Choir & spent 11th & 12th grade in the L room!
    Happy though, the buildings almost lasted a hundred years & many thousands of children later!

32. I graduated from LHS in 1969, my Aunt graduated from LHS in 1947, and my cousin in 1954. When I first saw these photos I thought they were taken of the inside of a vandalized ghetto school building, not LHS. Was the building allowed to fall into this state of disrepair ON PURPOSE? Sad ending to a proud fixture in Lakewood, Tony Dibiasio our class advisor in 69 would have tears in his eyes if he saw what has happened to the structure.

33. The school was open to the public for one last walk through on December 6th, and I posted a second photo series to reddit/r/cleveland. Check them out!

34. I went to elementary school at Franklin and Jr. High at Emerson and started High School at L H S
    Yes it is sad to see our past get torn down, but the fact is those old schools were built in a time when trash or coal was burned to heat the boilers and gas was practically free. There was no insalation and the rooms were huge. I hate seeing time taking its toll on these buildings but the fact is, it has. The money saved on heat alone will pay for a big chunk of the coast of new schools, and new schools are a draw to people looking for a place to raise a family. Yes its sad to say good by to our memorise but its not all bad, Lakewood is not the city it was in the 70s and I hate seeing it start to fall. Any thing that will keep it going is a good thing. Let’s just hope the new part of L H S keeps the old traditions alive…..

35. So sad to hear of this! My fondest years (57-60) were at that school! The L-Room was the greatest idea ever and the auditorium with Johnny Appleseed mural was a proud achievement. LHS had plenty of athletic pride and always strong school spirit.

36. Tear down the entire high school; move the kids to the ‘old’ hospital; move the patients to Fairview; enjoy the savings; use extra monies to help Section 8’ers get new Infinity automobiles.
    I am so smart..S…M…R…T

37. I’m an Alumni and I was not informed about the construction on LHS. Why is that? Imagine my surprise as I drove past the school ready to look on it fondly and instead found the old building leveled and construction equipment there? I understand the building was old but the L-Room is a different story. The L-Room was constructed on funds from the students (bake sales, etc) so they’d have a place to go. They always boasted the L-Room was the ‘students room’. So, who gave them the rights to tear it down? Surely not the ‘students’. This makes me sad. I would have loved to purchase items from the school but, again, was not notified of the sale. We need to keep our Alumni better informed. They were the ones who ‘made’ the school a school, contributing to it and keeping it alive after graduation. They say it was a battle of the costs…isn’t that always what it comes down to in Lakewood? Forget the Historical Society doing it’s job in Lakewood. Let’s tear down all the schools since they are so old, hell, let’s take the houses too since many of them are over 100 years old. What’s next? Who passed this levy? Surely not people with kids or Alumni.

38. After graduating from LHS in ’87, I’d been back a few times since, and these demolition photos bring a tear to my eye. Seeing the doors to the planetarium, I could still hear the spacey music Mr.Komenski would softly play in the background during his explanation of astronomy, room 410,where I had study hall with Miss O’Connell, and the hidden little theatre where the Barnstormers did their enterpritation of Go Ask Alice, that was fantastic! The kids going forward will have a Shiney new building to call home,and that’s great,but will not have the experience of friendship,when the word friend was more than checking a box on your Facebook page. R.I.P the typing room, the L-Room,and old building homeroom 312,my homeroom with Mr.Kirschbaum.

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