Dover High demolition is bittersweet for residents
Crews begin demolition of Dover High School.
After weeks of slowly pecking out windows and throwing outdated furniture into dumpsters amid piles of dirt and gravel, the old Dover High School buildings were demolished beginning early Tuesday, June 9.
A small gathering of residents and school faculty gathered across Walnut Street to witness the event, where many could be seen wiping a tear. Crews with backhoes began the demolition work early in the morning and expected to have both the 1915 and 1938 structures mostly razed by day’s end.
Mandi Robinson is a second-grade teacher in the Dover City Schools system and a 1990 graduate of Dover High. She said she has good memories of her time within the school walls.
"Very much so. I have very good memories. It’s sad and hard to see this but also very exciting for the future,” Robinson said.
That future is very real for Robinson's family, which will have a senior and a freshman in classes at the new school. “I’m very focused on the future and the many good things to come for students,” she said.
Also a teacher at Dover City Schools, Courtney Rees sat across the street in front of the Dover Public Library with her two small children.
“I graduated in 2000 and also teach ninth grade,” Rees said. “I was just speaking to someone about this in the past week, and you know, I thought this would be very sad, but knowing what’s in that new building and what lies ahead for the students, it’s a very good thing. There’s a sentimental part of it, but I really wish we could have had the open house for the community before (COVID-19 restrictions). Once the community sees what’s in store, I think, I hope, there will be a new resurgence of community pride.”
Bob Everett rose early to begin feeding live video of the demolition to Facebook when it began. Everett was a graduate of the school system and a school board member from 1986-93.
“I was there when we did the renovation to the high school at the time,” Everett said. “Now that I’ve been in so many new school buildings, I know for a fact we have to keep up with the times. We have to educate our children with today’s tools. We can’t do that with a 100-year-old facility. We really can’t let technology and the ways of teaching today’s youth pass us by. It’s odd to stand here though and see the side-by-side comparison: the brand new next to the old coming down.”
Margie Jones made sure to have a close look and a good photo spot for the demolition, on the sidewalk on the school side of Walnut Street, just behind the fence that now circles the property.
“I graduated from Dover in 1961,” Jones said, naming off four generations of her own and her husband’s family who had been or are currently students at Dover.
“I’m sad to see this happen,” Jones said. “But it was falling apart. You have to credit the school system. They did their best to try to take care of it. I don’t think they had any choice but to build a new school. I mean it was obvious even the pipes didn’t fit together anymore, and the rain dripped on the kids through the leaky roof. It was just dangerous in some places. We will just have to have our good memories and move on.”
Dover Schools Superintendent Carla Birney could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday morning.
Those that gathered in the June sunshine to see their old school turned to dust seemed to be of one mind: sad to see it go, ready for a bright future ahead.