Barn-Razing Crowd Gathers To Watch The Beginning Of The End For The Old Coliseum

The pink lady put up a good fight, but her tired old walls were no match for the massive claw that overpowered her.

Spokane’s Coliseum on Thursday met with an unforgiving 945 Caterpillar tractor - complete with clamp - and started down its monthlong road to demolition.

“The old girl deserved to go out with a bang instead of getting ripped apart, her guts pulled out,” said Spokane resident Bob Smith, who stood across Howard Street videotaping the building’s demise.

“It makes it more painful doing it like this,” said Smith’s wife, Edeltraud. “It hurts to watch.”

Gillingham Construction Inc. of Boise began taking the Coliseum down this week piece by piece, chunk by chunk - even letter by letter.

“I like seeing the letters fall,” said Erik Solberg, 9, who, along with his sister, Kristen, 6, and dad, Tom, made a special trip downtown for the spectacle. “We got to see the ‘M’ and the ‘O’ go.”

The Caterpillar - described by some as a “hungry dinosaur,” by others as a “lobster’s claw” or “carnivore” - pounded at the building’s pink wall.

As the gaping hole in the Coliseum’s east end expanded, so did the lunchtime crowd of about 30 who skated, biked, walked and drove to see the old barn in its final hours.

For some, it was curiosity and a chance to watch destruction. “I have this mutant interest in watching buildings go down,” said attorney Linda Tompkins.

For others, it was a chance to say goodbye to a building hailed as a palace when it opened in 1954 for concerts, circuses, rodeos and basketball games.

“It’s nostalgic,” said Dick Raymond, a city engineer. “This building was in my steel textbook in college. At the time it was built, it was really special.”

In April, the Coliseum gave up its insides. Nostalgia buffs and salvage connoisseurs raided it, buying seats - both toilet and stadium ones - at bargain prices.

Since then, crews painstakingly have removed asbestos from the building which went up long before doctors had linked the insulation to cancer.

Jerry Schlatter, construction manager for the $55 million arena project, said nearly half of the $814,000 demolition contract went to remove asbestos, which was bagged and shipped to a landfill.

Now, Gillingham is taking the Coliseum’s walls down slowly, recycling everything possible - steel, concrete and Rebar, Schlatter said. Next week, the company will begin removing the roof and steel supports.

The demolition should be complete in a month, and by late summer, the 41-year-old Coliseum will be replaced by a parking lot for the new arena next-door.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo