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As school's demolition looms, fight sputters on

The historic George Washington Junior High School is scheduled to come down on Aug. 2.

By MELANIE AVE
Published July 2, 2004

V.M. YBOR - They're crossing their fingers and holding their breath.

With the wrecking ball poised to tear down the old George Washington Junior High School beginning Aug. 2, a few preservationists and developers still have hope the historic school on E Columbus Drive can be saved.

Several grass roots efforts are under way to encourage the Florida Department of Transportation to delay its scheduled demolition of the 1915 school, where hundreds of immigrant children were taught.

The 51,129-square-foot Mediterranean Revival building, a twin of Wilson Middle School in Hyde Park, stands in the way of a future highway expansion of the interchange at Interstates 275 and 4.

Efforts to save the school have sputtered for the past three years, primarily because of the millions it would take to move and renovate the dilapidated building. Estimates have ranged from $1-million to $30-million. Transportation officials sought interested parties to relocate the building several times through newspaper ads, but received no response.

Everyone seems to agree that the possibility that the school will be saved dims with each passing day.

"The department has done diligence in trying to come up with any reasonable way to save the building," said Elaine Illes, a consultant with the Department of Transportation. "It's unfortunate, but there's not a good alternative. At some point or another, that building is going to come down."

The transportation department recently awarded a bid to demolish the building to Johnson's Excavation and Services in Plant City. Everything is a go.

But why demolish the building now, asks local developer Hamilton Jones, owner of Gaspar Properties.

"We think it's just insane to tear the building down when you don't need it for another 50 years," he said. "There's no pressing need to destroy this important piece of architecture."

Jones has asked to meet with top state transportation officials. He wants them to hold off on demolition for six months to give the community time to come up with alternatives to save the building.

"I'm hoping they'll be reasonable," he said.

Ideally, he would like the building moved so it can be renovated and potentially converted to office space.

His company has updated several historic Tampa buildings, including the Palace of Florence Apartments on Davis Islands and a former cigar factory leased to the University of Tampa.

Illes said the push to demolish the building does not hinge so much on the widening as it does on safety.

The interchange widening is at least 15 years away. But the boarded-up building has become a community problem by attracting vagrants.

A vacant building does not help the neighborhood, which has battled drugs and prostitution, Illes said.

Plus, she said, the state continues to spend taxpayer dollars to secure the building, and at some point, that becomes wasteful.

On another front, Carrol Marshall, president of the V.M. Ybor Neighborhood Association, is recruiting Washington graduates and asking them to contact transportation officials and request the demolition be postponed.

"I'm just calling everybody," she said. "I feel so helpless."

Alums like former Tampa City Council member Charlie Miranda called the school a piece of local history, something that if restored, would not only be important for former students but also for improving the struggling neighborhood.

"It has a lot of value, and not just to the people who went to that school," said Miranda, who attended school there in the 1950s. "It has some value to the neighborhood to help the neighborhood survive."

The school is located in the V.M. Ybor neighborhood, north of downtown Tampa.

The Hillsborough County School District sold the school to the FDOT in 2001 for $380,000. It closed as a school in 1979, though its first floor was used to teach adult classes in 1998.

Even with demolition scheduled, the state has not ignored the pleas of historians who want to save the building.

Pieces of it are being stripped and salvaged. Some of its wood floors and its metal and wood staircases were given to Wilson Middle School. One of its cupolas will be used for a monument and public bus stop to be built on the site. Another will be given to HARTline for a bus shelter that will go up near the University of Tampa. The transit agency also will receive 20 wood panel doors, round windows, sinks, water fountains and decorative medallions from the building's exterior.

Workers were scheduled to begin removing asbestos this week. The demolition has been coming for years, but the building has failed to generate a large response by those wanting to save it.

Enza Aiello, who owns property across the street, has submitted petitions to the state requesting a delay and written letters to lawmakers and City Council members.

She would like the building moved across the street to her property and adjoining land and renovated into lofts. If that's not possible, she said portions of it can be relocated to elsewhere in the neighborhood.

"To lose a monument like that to me ... is like losing the focal point of a neighborhood," said Aiello, owner of the interior decorating business, Design Resource of Hyde Park. "This is minute by minute right now."

Vivian Salaga, owner of Atelier Architecture of Tampa, is not giving up as long as the building is still standing.

"We just feel like every avenue ... hasn't been explored," she said. "We're hoping we can take on one last ditch effort."

- Staff writer Melanie Ave can be reached at 226-3400 or melanie@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 1, 2004, 11:26:08]