The old St. Stephens Elementary School was more than just a school, former teachers, administrators and students said Monday.
It was the place that, from its opening in 1933 to its abandonment in 2001, had defined the St. Stephens community just northeast of the city line, a community that retains a strong enough sense of itself to have its own library and Fire Department.
The Fire Department was needed Friday night, when the original school building on Springs Road burned.
Little more than a pile of blackened rubble was left by Monday, and the people who had formed ties with the school were trying to overcome their sadness.
"Having worked there as long as I did, from a principal's standpoint, there was nothing more beautiful than that school at the beginning of the year," said Marsha Woodard, the principal at St. Stephens Elementary since 1998 -- but in a new school since 2001. "The hardwood floors, the fresh paint would shine ... and to think that all that is gone, and we'll never be able to enjoy it again, it's pretty sad.
"I drive past it twice a day, and now I look at it and think, 'Gosh, I wish it hadn't ended that way.' "
Investigators continued to examine the ruins, and they said -- as they had Friday -- that they believe the fire was set intentionally, said Catawba County Fire Marshal David Pruitt. The building had no power.
Authorities, including the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and the county Sheriff's Office, found the spot they believe is where the fire started, in the northwestern corner, Pruitt said. But investigators still hadn't determined exactly what caused the fire, and a preliminary search turned up no evidence of an accelerant, he said.
"We're not finished at all with it," Pruitt said. Investigators also planned to interview witnesses who live near the school about what, if anything, they saw, he said.
Pruitt met Monday with school officials to bring them up to speed on the investigation and talk to them about the cleanup, which the school district will have to pay for. The Fire Marshal's Office hadn't determined the cost as of Monday.
The school district had been trying to sell the property ever since the final classes in spring 2001 but hasn't found a buyer. The school's asking price for the property -- including an additional school building built in 1954 and a gym built in 1953, neither of which was affected by the fire -- was $3.4 million.
"We have really not had many offers," and none recently, said school board Chairman Charlie Wyant. "That's what we'd like to get out of it. We may have to settle for less."
The main impediment to selling was one of the reasons the school system abandoned the school, Wyant said: Heavy traffic on Springs Road and the expected McDonald Parkway project, a long-delayed effort to extend a road from Interstate 40 north to Springs and alongside the old St. Stephens property.
"Sometime in the near future, we will be looking at what to do," he said. "As far as how this will affect the price of the property, I have no idea." Jason Richardson, a Realtor at Commercial First Real Estate Investment in Hickory and the listing agent for the property, declined to comment Monday on the fire's effect on the property value.
Of course, for others, the value of the place can't be quantified.
Loyd Hoke, who spent the first four years of his 33-year teaching career at the old school, said one of his old students called him Friday night to tell him the old school was burning.
Even though he spent most of his career at St. Stephens High, built in 1964, he fondly remembers when everyone from kindergarten through 12th grade attended the old school.
"The school is central to this community," Hoke said. "I was a little disturbed that the county had let the school deteriorate as long as it had. The school tied everyone together here. It's a loss, no doubt about it."
Elaine Kent grew up in a house two doors up Springs Road and attended the old school through high school herself, graduating in 1952. She remembers that the first day her family moved into the old house was also her first day of first grade at St. Stephens, in the fall of 1940.
Kent, who still lives in the neighborhood, went out Friday for dinner. When she came back, she saw the news helicopters hovering overhead and fire trucks. She, like many of her neighbors, stood on the street for the next couple of hours and watched her school burn.
"It was really sad. The school was just really, really important to us," she said. "It's like losing an old friend."
Distributed by the Associated Press
