St. James Catholic Elementary School was built in 1931. Over the years it changed names several times, but spent most of it's years as a school. In 2013 the church turned off the utilities and shuttered the building. That was the beginning of the end. I was allowed inside in 2014, and the building wasn't in horrible shape but you could see where water was making its way in from the roof. Fast forward two years to another visit in early 2016 and the building was deteriorating quickly. In December of 2016 St. James met its fate, the "wrecking ball." Now in January 2017 only a small portion remains and will be gone within the week.

The local paper did a story about the school, and even used my photos, after some of my photos "went viral" in a local Facebook group. Many cried out to save the building, but it was far too late for it to be saved.



October 2014


October 2014


October 2014


October 2014


April 2016


April 2016


April 2016


December 2016


December 2016


December 2016


December 2016


December 2016


January 2017


January 2017

Great post. Great photos. Great write-up. Too bad it's gone. Thanks for sharing.

Posted by chuck barkley Great post. Great photos. Great write-up. Too bad it's gone. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you!

Love it, It's not often that someone does an album showing the progression of a site over time.

Buildings can stand empty for a long time without any maintenance but as soon as the roof starts leaking it's all over. The sad thing is that it's a cheap fix to keep a roof in just ok condition, but owners don't want to spend the money on an empty building.

I have a real love/hate feeling towards the media. On the one hand raising awareness of these great places is a way to preserve them. On the other, as soon as word gets out about a location all the fucktards come crawling out of the woodwork to destroy it, making preservation more expensive or impossible.

Off my soapbox. Great set. Good work.

Awesome set. Your posts are always great. I would've loved to check this place out.

Those are awesome. I'm glad you were able to explore it so thoroughly before it came down. It's a real shame the city's replacing it with a parking lot, of all things.