‘Rock School’ facade removed, stored for now
Stones will clad new primary building set to open next year
Destruction of the Liberty-Eylau Independent School District’s Primary School, also known as the “Rock School,” began Monday, signaling a new beginning for the almost 80-yearold campus.
Rocks originally quarried from the Hooks, Texas, area in 1938, when it was built as a Works Progress Administration project, were first pulled from the top of the facade with a concrete plaque bearing the inscription “Eylau 1938.”
District Spokesman Matt Fry said both the concrete plaque and the rocks have been saved by JP Construction, the subcontractor doing the stonemasonry. They will be placed on the front of the new Primary building, which is expected to be complete in August 2018.
“The stonemasons came, they looked at it and were concerned about trying to move everything and concerned about the name plaque,” Fry said.
“They said it will be easier to take that stuff out, take the rocks down and
they will build the same thing back with the rocks.”
Fry said the demolition company, Intercon, worked hand-in-hand with the stonemasons on Monday to make sure the rocks and plaque were preserved, and they were successful. He added that some community members did not understand that the front was to be torn down and rebuilt on the front of the new building.
“It’s going to be basically a hundred feet north,” he said. “It’s going to be better and more structurally sound to take the rocks apart, clean them and use new cement to put them back together.”
The demolition is the first step in Phase 2 of the district’s $20.9 million bond project, which voters passed in 2016. The district has already put down new turf and resurfaced the track at Harris Field, in addition to upgrading its concession and restroom facilities. Construction also has begun on additions at the Pre-K Center and the CTE building at the high school, along with a new roof at the middle school, and heating and air system upgrades district-wide.
The new Primary building, designed by Thacker-Davis Architects of Longview, will incorporate the existing cafeteria and first-grade wing. It also will include a new gym, art and music rooms, media center, and science and computer labs. Special education suites will also be built. In addition, a new driveway will be constructed in front of the school to alleviate congestion on U.S. Highway 59.
The new rock facade will incorporate rocks from the fire-pit behind the school as a gesture of appreciation to those WPA workers who built the school during a dark time in our nation’s history.
“On all the WPA projects, they would build that first because all of the workers stayed on site and they cooked there every day,” Fry said. “The first guys who built this by hand, that’s what they cooked on.”
During that time, he added, putting the rocks together, creating buildings, was one of the few jobs available.
“That represented stability for your family, a job, being able to feed your kids. The people who participated in those projects have an emotional tie to it,” he said. “So they’re going to use some of those stones on the building just as a tie to that history, also. They’re going to intentionally use some of those stones just because it’s back to the actual first guys that built it.”
Fry said that at some point in the future, the public will be allowed to take the leftover rocks. But since the project is still in its infancy, that date hasn’t been set.