This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Granite High School, which has been a Salt Lake Valley landmark since 1907, will be gone by the end of August — and construction will begin before then on 76 single-family homes that will take the place of what was once the school's baseball diamond.
Historic memorabilia were removed prior to the start of the $2.5 million demolition project at the end of June, said Ben Horsley, a spokesman for Granite School District. Contractors have already demolished the school's south buildings and will now work to tear down the east auditorium and cafeteria over the next two weeks. The main, oldest portion of the campus will be removed in late August.
Members of the Granite High Alumni Association had fought for more than just preservation of artifacts, but their efforts to preserve some or all of the buildings were unsuccessful.
"It's awful," said Tom Eatchel, a member of the association who graduated from Granite in 1995. "I personally just think it's a huge loss of history within the Salt Lake Valley, and truthfully it's a lot of disrespect to those pioneers who came in and sacrificed to even put the high school there."
In an effort to preserve some elements of the school's history, Horsley said South Salt Lake has hired an archivist to catalog and prepare some items — including old trophies, uniforms and yearbooks — for "long-term display and storage."
Though plans for when and how those items will be displayed for the public are still in the works, Horsley said those who want a piece of the school's history can come to the site's east parking lot July 17-20 to "grab a brick or two" from the building.
Eatchel said he doesn't see the bricks as "a good consolation," but Horsley said there's a demand for nostalgic items — many alumni have asked to keep old lockers and other artifacts from the building.
"They want a piece of their school," Horsley said. "The bricks are the only things that really have no value that we can't preserve. They have no tangible value except sentimental value."
The school closed in 2009 amid concerns over declining enrollment, and various proposals have been floated since to preserve its iconic structures. Wasatch Developments and Garbett Homes eventually purchased the property for $11.6 million and will now move forward with a residential development plan on the southern 16 acres of the site.
Plans for the rest of the land on the north side of the 27-acre property are still in flux. Though slated for commercial development, the South Salt Lake City Council would need to rezone the area for such use before any projects could move forward. South Salt Lake Mayor Cherie Wood previously vetoed the location for a Walmart grocery store, and the City Council, which favored it, couldn't muster the votes to override her veto.
South Salt Lake Councilman Mark Kindred said the Planning Commission recently denied the commercial plan, which he expects to come before the council for consideration in the next few weeks.
With the buildings still standing, though gutted, Eatchel said he hasn't lost hope that they could be preserved — particularly because he said the city and its residents are still fighting against the commercial development proposal.
"I attended the South Salt Lake planning meeting and the community voiced against rezoning [the northern portion of the property] to commercial [use], so it's still zoned as residential," he said. "Those buildings literally could come down and that lot could sit vacant for a very long time and could be an eyesore to that community. I just think there's a better option on the table still."
Twitter: @tstevens95