Ohio school demolished to make way for replacement

GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio (WCMH) – A building containing over a century of history is slowly being torn down in Grandview Heights as the local school district makes way for renovations.

The work is part of Grandview Heights Schools’ three-year plan to update its high school and middle school buildings. A fall 2022 district newsletter reported that construction crews had finished a new Larson Middle School, and the high schoolers temporarily relocated there before moving into their newly renovated Grandview Heights High School over winter break.

While the plan stemming from a 2018 bond levy gave the high school a facelift and the middle school a new building altogether, it also meant saying goodbye to the old middle school still standing on district grounds. Grandview Heights Schools targeted the Edison Intermediate/Larson Middle School building for demolition. In its place, the district intends to create quality-of-life enhancements including:

• A multi-purpose field
• A new playground with outdoor basketball courts
• Outdoor seating
• Enhanced landscaping

That building’s history in particular dates as far back as 1923, according to Superintendent Andy Culp.

“The building currently being torn down actually consists of three or four add-ons over time,” Culp said.

The Google Street View below shows the Edison Intermediate/Larson Middle School as it stood in August 2022.

The EILMS building, as the superintendent called it, originally served as an elementary school for grades 1-6. Later in the 1980s, Culp said the space was consolidated to make separate early education and grades 4-8 buildings. Construction crews have already torn down the building for students between kindergarten and third grade and started the new year by making headway on the higher-grade structure.

Culp noted with around 100 years backing it, there would be a lot of memories associated with the disappearing school building.

“I have heard that some alumni are certainly emotional about the leveling of the old EILMS building,” Culp said. “I’m optimistic that our site plan will be so wonderful once complete that it will help with those that are sad about the old EILMS building being leveled.”

Additionally, the crews aren’t completely wiping out everything associated with the old school. The superintendent said that some portions of Edison Intermediate/Larson Middle School will be given new life.

“We partnered with architectural salvage who has already gone through the building and taken what they wanted, and we will be getting a split of those funds,” Culp said. “Additionally, we did take out some original clocks, and we will be saving a large concrete stone that is engraved ‘Grandview Heights Public Schools.’ Where that will go is currently in the hands of our landscape architect.”

The full demolition, which includes the leveling of the original site, will take somewhere around six weeks, according to the superintendent.