Dorchester Times: Report: Old School To Be Razed Monday

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Report: Old School To Be Razed Monday

The Times has learned the 1927 Dorchester School building will likely fall sometime Monday.

According to two sources at Dorchester Public Schools, the construction site manager has told school administrators that demolition of the old school will take place the morning of May 19, sometime between the hours of 9 a.m. and noon.

The Times will report any new information as soon as it is received. Readers with additional news should feel free to forward it to dorchester.times@gmail.com.

* UPDATE: 5/15, 10 p.m. *

The Kearney Hub reports that residents of Loomis, Neb. will get one last chance to visit the Loomis High School before it is demolished. The Loomis school board decided this week to have the final walk-through of the building from 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday. The Loomis Community Club will sponsor a freewill donation hamburger feed from 5:30 to 7 p.m., and the cornerstone will be removed at 7 p.m. The two-story high school in Loomis, built in 1928, will be torn down Tuesday to make room for a new $3.5 million one-level high school addition.

We at the Times think a last-minute walk-through should also be offered in Dorchester, if public safety permits. How about it school board members?

8 comments:

AnonymousMay 15, 2008 at 5:14 PM
Sad but exciting all in the same breath.
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AnonymousMay 15, 2008 at 9:47 PM
it's really going to happen, isn't it? i don't know what to think. i do think the new facility will attract some high quality instructors or at least get them interested, whereas they might not have been before.
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AnonymousMay 15, 2008 at 9:53 PM
a good topic for your next poll..........

should the Dorcheser school board hold town hall meetings to listen to the concerns of taxpayers??

Once again......the Times has found another way to hammer on the village board. when is it going to quit??
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AnonymousMay 15, 2008 at 10:35 PM
Its to bad they couldnt do this on a saturday or sunday afternoon..I wouldnt mind coming to watch a piece of history fall to the ground.
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Village DwellerMay 15, 2008 at 10:51 PM
To Anonymous who posted at 9:53 p.m.:

We are not criticizing the village board. At least that was not the intent of our poll.

The fact is, few citizens want to sit through the regular agenda of a board meeting to voice their suggestions and concerns.

Moreover, most citizens would be more comfortable doing so if surrounded by fellow residents.

We think your perceived bias is unfounded.

That said -- from the results of the poll thus far -- we believe most Times’ readers would also favor town hall meetings for school district patrons. It is something for the 2008-09 board to consider.

P.S. -- Are you sure you aren't "Cynical Richard"?
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AnonymousMay 16, 2008 at 5:32 PM
I am not cynical richard.......

i am not a drunk
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AnonymousMay 17, 2008 at 12:04 AM
yes, I would sure like to witness this also. we don't all have the ability to take off of work. a weekend would of been better.
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AnonymousMay 18, 2008 at 2:21 PM
I assume you all realize that the contractors etc. work Mon-Friday as do most of us. If it were to be done on a weekend the extra cost would be enormous.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."