EL DORADO -- For nearly a century, the Southside Elementary School building not only anchored the northeast corner of the four-way intersection at South Jackson Avenue and Pecan Street, but it also loomed as a majestic presence for the surrounding community.
Much of the building sat vacant and fell into a state of disrepair in the nearly 13 years since the elementary school was shut. Mayor Frank Hash said city crews recently knocked down the three-story, red-brick building, citing safety issues.
Robert Edmonds, director of public works, said the roof had been leaking for quite a while and had begun caving in, causing pieces to fall.
Additionally, break-ins and vandalism had become an ongoing problem, so the city, to which the El Dorado School District had deeded the property, demolished the building as a safety measure, Hash and Edmonds said.
"It's completely down now," Hash said. "We're going to haul away the debris as we can get to it. We've got some other projects to do. There's no hurry. Getting it down was the important thing."
The Southside building was built in the mid-1920s, becoming the second public elementary school to open in the city, following Retta Brown. At the time, it was the only elementary school within the El Dorado School District to have a dedicated auditorium, complete with wood and iron theater seats, a stage and a fly system. It also was among the first buildings in town to be constructed with electrical wiring, according to Sandy McGuire, who served as the last principal of Southside Elementary School in 2003.
Deep grooves had been worn in the stairs, evidence of the scores of students who had climbed them to reach upper-floor classrooms during the nearly eight decades that Southside was an active part of the El Dorado public school system.
Yocum Elementary School, which was built across town a year after Southside, sports a similar architectural design.
At the time Southside Elementary closed, it was the oldest operating elementary school building in the district, with a student enrollment of 189.
The closure came a year after students, teachers, faculty, staff and alumni celebrated the school's 75th anniversary.
Despite opposition, the El Dorado School Board unanimously voted in January 2003 to close the school.
Prompting the board's decision was a proposal to reorganize elementary schools in the district, and prohibitive cost estimates -- up to $1 million at the time -- to repair mortar, the foundation, and seepage and wiring problems and to replace a worn-out roof and heating/cooling, electrical and plumbing systems in the Southside building.
The amount still did not address accessibility issues for people with disabilities, then-Superintendent Bob Watson reported at the time.
McGuire said several ideas for use of the building were discussed after the elementary school closed and its students, faculty, staff and programs were divided among the remaining elementary schools in the district.
Talks of an art gallery, Boys and Girls Club, senior citizens' center, a facility for adult education or literacy education, police department substation, black history museum and a community meeting hall never materialized.
The school district eventually turned the keys over to the South West Economic Development Association, a nonprofit organization that offered a number of programs designed to foster economic growth in the community.
Within a decade, the South West Economic Development Association provided a daycare, culinary arts/catering school, a tobacco cessation program and a philanthropic program that donated refurbished computers, printers, copiers and scanners to other nonprofit agencies in south Arkansas and north Louisiana, among other services.
The South West Economic Development Association also managed the Mattocks Park swimming pool in 2005 and 2006.
The deed to the Southside building was to revert back the district should the South West Economic Development Association cease to operate in the manner that was prescribed in the deal.
The association's services steadily declined over the years, and the nonprofit agency shut down in 2014 during a federal fraud investigation.
Jim Tucker, superintendent for the El Dorado School District, said the former school building was in "horrible condition" and after discussing the matter with city officials, the school district deeded the property to the city with the intention that it would be razed.
Hash said there are no immediate plans for the property after the debris has been removed.
"It's a really nice location for a park. We'll keep it mowed. We could turn it into a spot for community garden plots," he said.
Initial plans were to keep the cafeteria, which was added in the 1970s, as an asset for the community to use, but Hash said ongoing vandalism squashed the plan.
He said salvageable equipment was removed from the cafeteria and donated to the local Boy Scouts of America, and the cafeteria was torn down as well.
Alderman Willie McGhee, who represents Ward Three where the school property is located, said he was not aware of plans to raze the building until he received a call from a resident asking if he could take some of the bricks from the building.
"I think we need to have a community meeting so people can have input, so they can be engaged," McGhee said. "We need to ask the people in that neighborhood what they would like to see in that spot.
"We need to see what they would like to do and what would be feasible because we work for these people," he said.
Ward Three Alderman Kensel Spivey, who lives near the property, invited residents to share their ideas for its use, and she offered one of her own.
"I would love to see that space utilized for a walking track to promote healthy living. I would also like to see some playground equipment for the kids in the neighborhood who can't go to Mattocks Park," Spivey said.
On the southwest corner of the property is a stone memorial marker honoring Nehamon Lyons IV, a U.S. Navy Specialist who died at the Pentagon in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He was 30.
Lyons was a Pine Bluff native who had relocated to Alabama.
In 2002, Linda Fitts, former director of El Dorado Connections, coordinated a one-year, communitywide tribute to the victims and heroes of 9/11.
"At that time, he was the first Arkansan that we had heard about who had died in 9/11. His name was one of the early ones we heard after 9/11, and with him being the first, we thought we should honor him," Fitts said last week.
During the tribute, which was held at the Union County Courthouse, a memorial plaque was dedicated to the more than 3,000 people -- four from Arkansas -- who lost their lives in the attacks.
Lyons was also honored with a second paver in the Community Memorial Wall surrounding the courthouse. Fitts said event organizers contacted members of his family, who traveled to El Dorado to attend the ceremony.
In further remembrance of Lyons' life and service, Fitts said she spoke to McGuire about organizing a project in his honor at Southside school.
"I thought that would be a really nice place for it. Sandy McGuire was the principal at the time, and she was really open to it," Fitts said.
McGuire noted that the attacks occurred during school hours, and organizers included students in the planning of the project, incorporating academic and life lessons.
The marker for Lyons is one of the last remnants of the building that once stood on the grounds, serving as a reminder that for many in the community, Southside was more than just a school.
Metro on 02/29/2016