From grades K to 6, I spent my school time in an old but functional school building that held classes of maybe 30 or so kids. There was no air conditioning or high tech teaching tools. Just good old fashioned open windows and the smell of chalkboards. This was the case for every kid in this county of Ohio during those years.

These old school buildings became vacant, when some years back the county began consolidating these smaller Elementary schools into just a few, massive ones. Now, only 3 schools educate the same amount of kids that used to be divided amongst 12 to 15 schools. I'm glad this didn't occur until long after my time in Elementary school.

Well, these old school buildings were sitting in these small communities, unused... and falling apart. Thankfully, most of these communities "adopted" these buildings, renovated them, and turned them into "community centers". These community centers can be used for a number of purposes; birthdays, training gyms, conferences, meetings, and a host of other purposes.



This is my old Elementary school. Chester Elementary. Now it serves as that communities' "Community Center". It's been decades since I sat foot in this building, but I think that one day, I will make the effort to do so if I can.

What has become of your own Elementary school buildings?

A flood took mine.

One I went to turned into a performing arts elementary school.

thecrow174 wrote :

A flood took mine.

A flood "took" it? Did it wash it away, or...?

It did. It's too bad, because I really liked going to that one.

I'm not sure how prevalent this is amongst the rest of you, but I can even recall the smell of the building. A bit musty, with a hint of floor wax and factory odors.

The school that got turned into a performing arts school smelled like cookie dough in the basement and fresh black top on the playground. Whenever I smell fresh blacktop I think of that school.

My old school Brooks Hill is still around. But They went under a big renovation project from what I heard. The Playground looks completely different then when I was there. I think they added a new addition to it. Thankfully the path that the walkers take that I took but wasn't supposed to. The gym got a total overhaul. The classrooms I managed to see in pictures have gotten changed alot.

They tore mine down and built a new one, shame because there's no pictures I can find of it. The house I grew up in was torn down too.

Yeah, the only pictures I've seen of my old Elementary School are those in my head.

But, as I stated earlier, the building still stands in basically the same condition. I'd like to go in it sometime to look around.

I've posted a satellite view of my first elementary school on this board before...a very unique building, a circular part that held the classrooms at one end, with a courtyard in the middle, connected by a hallway to a rectangular part that held the office, nurse, and multipurpose room (gym/lunchroom/auditorium). As far as I know it's still operating. 800 miles away, but my mom likes to kerp me updated on what's happening over there so if it closed I think I would know.

Anyway, community centers are nice. I'm glad to see schools live on that way (especially in this economy where so much stuff gets shut down and other stuff I could bitch about...) Schools, and I really love buildings, architecture, planning, sociology--old schools are some of the most amazing buildings.