Citizens Help Preserve Lc Artifacts

To look at Lewis and Clark High School now, it takes some imagination to visualize the historic school in its future glory. The campus is bustling with activity from the massive $30 million renovation project scheduled to be finished next summer.

More than 100 workers have gutted the building, and the insides are spread everywhere. Most of it will be put back, for sure. But not all.

You see, some LC artifacts have settled into new homes.

Since construction started in the summer of 1999, hundreds of items have been sold or donated that otherwise would have been destroyed during demolition.

A year ago, the LC Booster Club started the artifact exodus by auctioning various fixtures.

“It is our hope that things that aren’t going to be used in the school can be used by people who value historic artifacts,” preservation advocate Joan Hollowell said then.

LC’s cheerleading coach, Lorrie McNutt, was one of dozens who bid on block items. She ended up with an old, dusty student locker found by itself in the school. She paid $250 for it.

“It was vintage LC,” she said. “It was one of a kind and has so much sentimental value.”

Her children attended LC, so she uses the locker, she said, to store mementos of their school years.

Other parents and LC enthusiasts bought bookshelves, blackboards, telephones, woodshop tools and other knickknacks.

The auction raised $27,000, which helped pay for the restoration and preservation of auditorium artwork and LC’s historic pipe organ, built in 1924. In May, pieces of LC were recycled as public seating. Local architects held a park-bench design contest, and selected three for Riverfront Park.

One of the winning designs used reclaimed pieces of railing and masonry from the LC annex, which was razed to make room for new construction.

The LC bench is located just north and to the right of the bridge by the Carousel.

Bricks from the annex were reclaimed, as well. LC’s Instrumental Music Parents Association sold more than 200 annex bricks at $10 a pop to raise money for the band.

The annex housed the band for years, so the bricks were fitted with brass plates that read, “LC Annex: Creating Generations of Music.”

Recently, school officials donated two defunct steam engines to the Inland Empire Steam and Gas Buffs. The club of about 350 members spends its free time fixing up old and antique tractors but on occasion will take on a steam engine or two for fun.

“The school asked us if we could house them permanently, and we said, `Sure!”’ said organization president Dave Roark. Most of the members are retired and enjoy being able to do something with their free time, he said.

The engines weigh 6,500 pounds each and are currently being housed at the Interstate Fairgrounds. They were on display there during the Interstate Fair last month.

The 50-horsepower backup engines were used to power the ventilation system in case the primary electric engines lost power because of a blackout. Electricity went out often in the 1910s, Roark said.

The engines were used until the late 1950s and were powered by steam piped in from the old downtown steam plant, which now houses a restaurant.

Now, most everything that was up for grabs is gone. With only seven months or so left in the renovation project, the next chore is getting everything in that’s going back in and getting it back in the right place.