SANFORD — A small cluster of folks were watching and reminiscing as construction equipment began tearing into the former Emerson School.

While the large granite marker over the front door, engraved “Sanford High School 1901” was removed sometime Friday, demolition of the brick structure named for poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson started Monday morning.

Jim Meunier remembers being in a classroom on the second floor, in second grade, when Pauline Dolbec was his teacher back in the mid-1980s.

“It’s sad to see this, there are so many memories,” said Meunier. “It was a big part of my childhood.”

He remembers being there when the Challenger space shuttle exploded in 1986, and Mrs. Novak, a substitute teacher, gently brought the children in, sat them down, and said she had something to tell them.

“I remember sitting on a little reading rug in the classroom,” said Meunier. He said Novak was visibly upset as she told the youngsters of what had transpired.

Though he was sad to see it go, Meunier knew that the school, which closed in June 2013, would have needed extensive repairs to continue to function effectively.

The building, which in its last years housed grades one through three, was closed in 2013, a couple of years after Sanford learned it had been awarded elementary school funding from the state’s school construction program.

Three of Sanford’s small elementary schools — Willard, Lafayette and Emerson — were all aging and all needed extensive renovation. Sanford school officials and others formulated a plan to create a central elementary school for students from the three schools.

At the same time, the state tightened its wallet on annual aide to education; the cost to make Emerson usable for only a few years was thought to be too great. The roof alone would have cost $250,000, the price tag for new windows was $20,000, and other repairs were needed and so the School Committee voted to close the school. 

Even after the closure there were more problems. The boiler — despite being checked the previous day — apparently failed over the New Year’s holiday in January 2014 causing the pipes to freeze and burst.

The city put the property on the market in 2014, and agreed to enter a contract with Cumberland Farms  in March 2015. The transaction was completed in the fall of  2016.

The purchase price and some insurance funds total about $760,000. The money will cover about half the cost to build Sanford’s new broadband initiative; the rest of the funds to build the high speed fiber project will come from a federal grant.

Although Emerson School is coming down, it won’t be forgotten. Some school mementos were passed on to the Sanford Springvale Historical Society in August 2013 as the school was being emptied.

The most impressive of the artifacts is a massive marble stone carved with the names of the school superintendent of the day, Myron Bennett, along with the building committee, the builder, architect and plumber.

A photo of the school, a portrait of Emerson, some Christmas ornaments from the 1980s depicting notable buildings in town, and a photo of a class of seventh-grade students on the front steps, circa 1924, are among the items passed on to the historical society.

“It makes me really sad,” said Judee McKenney as she and others watched the demolition. She, her daughter and her grandchildren had all attended Emerson School, and her grandchildren were students there when Emerson marked its 100th birthday in 2001, she said.

“I went to school there in the late 1970s, said Kevin LeBlanc, among those watching. “I think it’s sad some buildings come down for progress.”

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].