"It's a tragedy that this building is going to be demolished," said Barbara Cohen, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors, who voted unanimously Aug. 4 to waive some approval procedures and grant a demolition permit. "I felt I needed to cauterize a wound that was bleeding and had been bleeding for years."
It sits on a hill next to its successor, the Schuylkill Elementary School built in 2006. The reasons for the vote, according to several supervisors, were entwined in the twists and turns of the nearly decade-long struggle involving the building.
Debbie Dawson, vice president of the Phoenixville Area school board, argues that the building is too far gone to be saved. The school was closed in 2002 because teachers repeatedly became ill while working there, Dawson said.
Preservationists say the school can be cleaned up and saved. The building, which has been deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, can be renovated, cleared of mold, and used as a library, for classrooms or administrative offices, or in some other capacity, said Sandy Momyer, president of the Schuylkill Township Historical Commission.
Built in 1930, the building - with eight classrooms and a gym - was one of three in Chester County largely financed by Frank B. Foster, a Congoleum vinyl-floor magnate from Haverford.
Tina Daly, Foster's granddaughter, said Foster helped fund construction of the three consolidated school buildings at a time when children attended one-room schoolhouses. The two other schools - Charlestown Elementary School in the Great Valley School District and East Pikeland Elementary School, also in the Phoenixville Area School District - are still in use.
