By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

The sound of bricks tumbling down was a bittersweet melody to the end of the Sulphur Springs Consolidated School building.

Wednesday marked the final day that the school, a part of the Colonel Crawford School District, stood on the grounds of the small berg of Sulphur Springs. A crew of men systematically tore down the generations-old brick building but took extra special care in preserving the stained plaque that had once held prominence on the front of the edifice.

“It’s been a long time in the making,” noted Colonel Crawford superintendent Todd Martin. “There’s been a lot of community members coming down, taking bricks, and taking pictures.”

Martin, an Eagles’ alum who grew up in Sulphur Springs, doesn’t begrudge the community for wanting a piece of their childhood. He had been at a conference Wednesday when he got word that the building was almost completely torn down. Martin hadn’t expected the project to be completed so quickly and left his conference early to see the last of the Sulphur Springs building.

The former school had stood empty for a number of years but, now that it has been demolished, Martin said a lot of people have come up with ideas to honor the place where the school had stood. Ideas that have been bandied about included keeping the pillars in place, using the plaque in some kind of memorial, and possibly turning the area into a park.

The Sulphur Springs building was only the first of the old schools in the Colonel Crawford School District to be demolished. Martin said that the Whetstone building will be next on the list, followed by the North Robinson Intermediate building after the abatement has been finished. A portion of the current Colonel Crawford High School will also be demolished after a high school addition has been added to the elementary school. Martin said that final project is expected to happen in the fall of 2015.