Baker City locals lament the loss of historic Central School Building
By Joe Hathaway on Friday, May 24th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY — As the story goes, Francis Chaves was a senior at Baker High School in the 1940’s when he pulled off one of the most legendary pranks in the town’s history.
During spring break of his senior year, Chaves, along with his brother, decided that for a senior prank he would take a cow up to the top floor of the high school, which then was located in the Central School Building. He and his brother took some hay, led the cow up the stairs, and there it stayed until school resumed and teachers and administrators were in for quite a shock when they returned.
“A lot of people don’t know, but a cow can go up stairs, but cannot go down,” said Kyle Carpenter, Chaves’ grandson. “So the school had to get a crane and lift the cow off the top floor.” My grandfather and his brother never let anyone know who it was and most of the family found out at his funeral.”
Carpenter’s story about his grandfather’s antics is just one of dozens of memories people have been sharing about the Central Building, after it was severely damaged in a fire on Wednesday, May 22.
The fire began around 6:30am that morning and dozens of firefighters from the area fought it nearly the entire day. The roof of the building collapsed and fire officials say the inside of the building was “gutted.” The investigation into the cause is underway.
The school was built in 1916 and according to records from Baker Technical Institute (BTI), was constructed by Ellis F. Lawrence, the founder of the School of Architecture at the University of Oregon. The 57,000 square foot building was home to Baker High School from 1917 to 1952 and Baker Middle School from 1953 to 2009. It has remained vacant since 2009.
It is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and according to BTI, is on the list of Oregon’s “most endangered places.”
“It’s a huge loss. Anytime you lose a building 100 years or older it’s a huge loss for the community,” said Lynn Weems, Director of the Baker Heritage Museum. “I attended school there, so did my brother, so a lot of people in this town have memories of that building.
In 2020, BTI received a $500,000 EPA Brownfield Cleanup Grant to clean up the empty building and clear out contaminants. The project was delayed due to the pandemic but work was recently finished on replacing the roof. The project’s effort to remove interior asbestos and lead-based paint abatement in the building was scheduled to get underway before the blaze broke out.
The Baker School District said it conducted air quality tests at all its schools due to the dangerous smoke from the fire. Only Baker Middle School, located across the street from the Central Building, had unhealthy air quality readings. The middle school was closed on Thursday.
Baker City Manager Barry Murphy says the area around the building is still unsafe. Fencing has been put up around the property for public safety.
“The firefighters have had to return to the scene a couple of times to address smoke and heat still coming from the building. There is also risk from the debris in the area and concern about the integrity of the structure,” said Murphy. “The Fire Department recommended fencing around the whole area to keep citizens safe, and the school district did a great job getting that fencing up by Wednesday evening.”
