Jefferson School to come down

SHENANDOAH – Three years after it was submitted to the Schuylkill County Demolition Program, one of the oldest buildings in Shenandoah is set to be demolished.

The former Jefferson Elementary School at West and Centre Streets has been abandoned and in a state of disrepair since it closed in the early 1980’s.

The school was built in 1873 and is one of the oldest buildings in Shenandoah.

In May of 2018, Shenandoah Borough Council submitted the school to the Schuylkill County Demolition Program.

Three years later, funds have finally been appropriated for the project, namely $56,818.18 from the Commonwealth Department of Community and Economic Development.

County Commissioners approved the demolition this past Thursday.

The building opened on February 18, 1873, and was built to relieve overcrowding in the fledgling borough’s school system.

According to Andy Ulicny, historian with the Greater Shenandoah Area Historical Society, the school opened as the town’s high school.

An addition was built onto the school in 1893, adding six rooms to the current 12. The building served as an elementary school after the 1918 construction of the J.W. Cooper Memorial High School at White and Lloyd Streets on the east end.

At one time, Ulicny said in the historical society newsletter, the Shenandoah School District had ten buildings throughout the borough, including one in Turkey Run. Neighborhood elementary schools were operated throughout the town, including the Jefferson.

When the Shenandoah School District absorbed the West Mahanoy Township School District in the 1960’s, the Jefferson was the only neighborhood elementary school remaining in Shenandoah.

From then until the current Shenandoah Valley High School’s construction, the district operated the Jefferson, along with the Shenandoah Heights Elementary School in the former West Mahanoy Township High School building, the Roosevelt Junior High at Union and Lloyd Streets, and the Cooper High School.

When the new high school was built, the two elementary schools were merged into one centralized elementary school in the Cooper building, and the Roosevelt’s students were moved into the high school building.

In 1994, the Jefferson building was sold, and has sat vacant since. A photo from the Schuylkill County Parcel Locator, dated February of 1995, shows boarded up windows.

Since then, parts of the building have crumbled and fallen to the ground below.

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Kaylee Lindenmuth

Kaylee Lindenmuth is a Shenandoah native with a passion for journalism and the community she calls home.

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