It was almost Hallowe’en so it seemed like a good time to look at a haunted school. A tour of abandoned Fort Frances High School should prove scary enough by now, all right.
You really can’t expect to find vampires over there, even if bats and rats should be plentiful. After all, our red brick mountain has been out of service for more than a year now.
You should notice lots of dust and cobwebs, and maybe piles of broken plaster. And what about water in the basement?
Mustachioed Lanny Freeman just laughs at all such suggestions. He’s maintenance chief for the Rainy River District School Board and he will even find a couple of lanterns to show you around the old place.
The lights, plumbing, and heating have all been turned off to save taxpayers an estimated $60,000 annually. But he does not anticipate much resulting deterioration because of all this.
Old FFHS was really built, as some lucky purchasers will be delighted to discover.
Your hopes for an eerie time in the more than 40 rooms and 15,000 square feet of space are somewhat dashed by a surprising cleanliness in the 80-year-old school even yet.
Only a few windows were broken before being boarded over and every area stands ready for inspection.
But still no buyer comes forward.
Laura Mills, the board’s chief financial officer, reports nary a serious sales prospect at the moment. Lanny said a Thunder Bay group sounded promising for only a while.
Yet Murray Quinn, superintendent of plant for the local school board, won’t discuss demolition as inevitable, and most would agree with him after appraising the near immaculate stance of our old alma mater.
Quinn is not hiding the fact that removal of asbestos and other designated substances must be looked after to bring the building up to acceptable standards.
Still, when you see two gymnasiums and miles of other floor space apparently ready for immediate use, you have to wonder about the possibilities.
So did a former principal, Brad Saunders, a few years ago. He believed academic progress could be enhanced with a new school. When the writer offered a couple of far-out ideas, he listened.
There being much talk of casinos in those days, the old school was considered as a nightly playground for the rich and famous from far and wide. The name of this game is money and welcome to Las Vegas, Ont.
Casinos not being easy to acquire, another alternative was proposed. Considering the vocational wing and its equipment, this solution would introduce a well-appointed penitentiary with by-products including licence plates and mailbags.
These profitable ventures were somehow overlooked in our anxiety to join the throwaway society and mothball the old school.
It has been advertised all right, if not yet presented as a commodity on the Internet or any international brokerage. Then there has been hesitation over setting prices.
Brad Saunders actually tried the penitentiary idea out on the Ontario minister of Correctional Services, as we remember. The minister was to arrive for a look at our district jail (which keeps getting condemned year after year) yet he wasn’t really shown around the high school, possibly because who wants to house hundreds of hardened criminals right downtown.
Superintendent Quinn claims a rubber membrane roof cover known as EPDM is ideal for flat roofs in Northwestern Ontario and the old one could still be saved–as was the equally ancient Robert Moore School roof.
Also on the plus side of this story is Lanny’s report that most desks, lockers, and useable fixtures already have been transferred to other district schools. And he mentioned other salvage is going ahead on the Burriss and Cornerbrook schools, which were recently sold.
The very vastness of old Fort High looms as the barrier to quick salability. When the first high school (now the local museum) proved too small, the behemoth on First Street East started going up in stages in 1922. Massive additions went on in the ’50s and ’60s.
Today, there is room for a big city mall and numerous government offices, hobbies and recreation of all kinds, maybe even a few swimming pools.
Taxpayers protested the various expansion projects and long ago urged the board to start a new school here. But this did not come about until ill-fated Westfort proved too little and too late.
Some will say the presence of the late John Townshend, former principal and war casualty, and the theatre that bears his name out at the new school, helps diminish the sorrow over Fort High’s problems today.
But wait a minute.
There was a fire drill once upon a time with real smoke. As we all stood outside, John’s secretary, then Mary Pidlubny (now Andrusco), came out the door holding his overcoat with his smoking pipe still in the pocket.
We boys all called him “Butch” back then. On that day, much-feared Butch could have ended all future problems for Fort High. Now that he has gone on to have fun in his theatre, none who were there will ever remember Mr. Townshend as at all frivolous.
If time changes everything, don’t quit believing that Fort High can yet regain prestige in this community. Singer Johnny Horton made his “snow white mountain” in Alaska famous and mountains are in the news a lot these days (like “Mount Trudeau” nearby).
Our big red brick mountain still stands here, just dreaming of the bygone days, but there are still lots of old friends pulling for it.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
