Warren PA's Home Street School Fiasco: "I'm an idiot, but I still want my money back."

That's not an actual quote. I'm just putting words into someone's mouth for effect

Home Street Elementary School opened in 1928 and closed in 2005 once the school board voted to consolidate its early-grades operation (now K-5) at the Warren Area Elementary Center.  The school was razed in 2011, but not until after it was used for firefighter training.

The school board hoped to sell the schools it closed for the purposes of reuse or redevelopment.

Now has this plan worked out?

Jefferson Elementary School, which I attended from 1957 to 1962 and sits behind the house where I grew up, has sat empty for the past 9 years and is increasingly falling into disrepair, as these photos taken in 2008 (!) indicate.

As for the Home Street site, developer Ruzhdi Bakalli had a grand plan.

"I tried very hard to build homes," he tells the commissioners of the Warren Redevelopment Authority.  "I went to many builders, but people are looking for cheaper houses."

According to Bakalli, the builders with whom he talked said they couldn't be bothered with houses that sold for less than $300,000

For regular readers of this blog, you'll remember that Warren PA has lost more than 1/3 of the "15,000 friendly people" who lived here at its population peak in the early 1950s,   Population loss was primarily the result of a shrinking, almost gone manufacturing base -- the loss of good-paying jobs with benefits that awaited high school graduates. It was also one of the compelling reasons to consolidate the elementary schools.  The youngest of the 3 Nelson brothers graduated from Warren Area High School in 1975 with a class of 525, the baby-boomer peak.  The high school now graduates less than 200.

Bakalli goes on to say.

"This was my mistake.  I did not do enough research.  The market isn't there.  I just want to recoup the demolition coasts.  I'm ready to return the property to you."

He's asking for $63,000.

A decision has not yet been made.

Other Warren PA posts:
Warren Pennsylvania Notables and the Homes Where They Lived (The Logan-Wallace House). (1/14/2014)
Zooming in on "Overtown" in Warren PA 16365 (October 1979).  (1/13/2014)
Eddy-Frycklund House.  (1/8/2014)
Siggins-Smith House.  (1/4/2014)
Mansion House.  (1/3/2014)
The Morck-Morrison house.  (1/1/2014)
Six degrees of Reverend Nelson.  (12/31/2013)
Jarvis Cleaners Accepts Cash and Checks Only.  (12/30/2013)

The Physicians' Building.  (12/30/2013)

C. W. Stone.  (12/28/2013)

Computerized Nutritional Analysis with a Side of Honey,  (12/14/2013)
A Dark Ceiling Tile at the Busy Bee Restaurant in Warren PA 16365.  (12/24/2013)
Just When You Thought He Was Going, Going, Gone, Eugene Bounces Back.  (11/21/2013)
Happy 100th Birthday, Mallomars!   (11/14/2013)
Then and Now: Intersection of Second Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue West, Warren PA.  (10/7/2013)
The Blue and White (Published by the Students of the Warren High School).  (9/28/2013)
Then and Now: Market Street, Warren PA 16365.  (9/18/2013)
Then and Now: Hickory Street and West Third Avenue, Warren PA.  (9/17/2013)
Then and Now: Liberty & Pennsylvania Avenue West, Warren PA 16365.  (9/17/2013)
Then and Now: Liberty Street Looking from Pennsylvania Avenue West, Warren Pennsylvania 16365.  (9/16/2013)
Then and Now:  Warren National Bank Building.  (9/11/2013)
Apparently, Gaughn's is no longer "a real drug store".  (9/10/2013)
Hickory Street Bridge in Warren PA 16365 (Then and Now).  (9/10/2013)
Then and  Now:  Post Office.  (9/9/2013)
Then and Now:  Cornplanter Bridge, Kinzua Dam Reservoir, near Warren PA 16365.  (9/9/2013)
The Geography of Hate:  Warren PA 16365.  (5/14/2013)
They Say People Have Gotten Smarter Where I Grew Up.  (8/27/2012)
WNAE in Warren, Pennsylvania: When Local Radio was 'Hyperlocal'.  (8/28/2011)