Washington Township School – Lewistown
Washington Township School Building in Lewistown. August 8, 2017.
On June 26, 2023, I received a message from Margie Hites urging me to swing by the old school in Lewistown because its demolition was imminent. A few years earlier, in 2017, I photographed the school building on one of my travels around the lake. So, after getting the heads up from Margie I drove over to Lewistown to check out what was going on.
Indeed, the former school building was surrounded by a chain-link fence. after walking around for a bit and taking some pictures I ran into Sheri Walbright, the current owner of the building. Her late husband, Mike Freeze, purchased the former school around 2001. For a few years it served as an alternative school, then housed an Outreach Ministery, and provided temporary housing – including an upstairs apartment for Sheri for about a year after her husband suddenly passed way in 2012. For the last seven or so years the building has mostly set empty. With the building being abandoned came vandalism, broken windows, and whatever else bored kids do with empty buildings.
Sheri Walbright tried to sell the school building but there were no takers. Then in late 2021 Logan County, concerned with the deteriorating state of the building, informed Sheri that she could obtain a grant to demolish the school. Who knew that tearing down a building this size would cost more than one million dollars?
Demolition was to start the next day. I asked Sheri if I could come back and take some pictures inside the building and she agreed to meet me the following morning for a tour through the newer part of the building that is not scheduled to be demolished.
I only took pictures during the first two days of demolition. The entire demolition took more than a month……
August 8, 2017.
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