Newbury High School saw four generations of students tromp through its halls for more than 90 years.
Newbury High School saw four generations of students tromp through its halls for more than 90 years.
In recent months, the interior of the three-story, yellow-brick edifice on Auburn Road in Newbury Township has been gradually disassembled. Trucks and vans have been coming and going behind the temporary chain-link fence, carrying away a variety of items or materials in advance of the building’s demolition.
On May 11, enormous equipment started to take huge bites of roofs and walls, operating efficiently under blue skies.
Few people stopped to witness Newbury High School’s demise despite the closing of the school district causing a huge uproar in the small, close-knit community.
It was one of the last township schools left in Ohio and many residents were outraged when, due to fiscal realities, the school board finally committed in 2018 to a territory transfer with neighboring West Geauga Schools.
Part of the agreement was West Geauga would cover the cost of the high school’s demolition slated to begin the first part of May, but an exact date was not widely known.
Yet, Newbury High School graduate Bill Ward made it a point to be on site when the wreckers fired up and took the first chunk out of the back of the township’s central landmark.
“I think I was the only one from Newbury to see it start crumbling,” Ward said, adding it was an emotional moment. “It was surreal. I almost had to go say goodbye.”
He spent about an hour in the parking lot shooting pictures as the work progressed.
“I saw them taking the date stone down. It was in four pieces. I was surprised at that,” Ward said. The concrete sign over the front doors read Newbury High School 1928.
The demolition started at the entrance to the gymnasium, where residents of all ages would gather to watch their basketball or volleyball teams compete ferociously every winter.
Ward said he’d hoped to score, one more time, by collecting some memorabilia, but he was disappointed.
“I didn’t get a piece of the basketball floor where I had so many glorious days,” he laughed, recalling watching some of his games on film. “I wasn’t as great as I thought I was.”
Another irony hit him as the machines tore up the music wing of the old building.
“It’s interesting that the first part of the building they took down was where I acted in my first senior play – ‘Love is Contagious.’ I played an inebriated man, the town drunk. And I ended up in Hollywood,” said Ward, an actor and well-known voice in many productions.
The events leading up to the demise of the school district — less and less state funding and fewer students every year — caused a financial burden on township taxpayers and created a situation that could only end one way.
“It was pretty evident what happened needed to happen,” Ward said. “It’s sad, but life moves on.”
