In 2023, I thought I would only have one more Sterling Annex entry to write after its demolition, a nice little epilogue on the pocket park to memorialize the school. That prediction ended up being incorrect. I was in the area recently and decided to swing by, thinking maybe there would have been changes by now. But no, things look fairly similar to how I left them.
Since the Sterling School building's demolition, there really hasn't been any other activity on the site. It continues to be used primarily for extra car parking for the Lindsay Automotive fleet. I reached out to my contact with Lindsay, who told me there's been a few delays with the county in the process of building their detail facility and adjoining pocket park on the site. They're hoping to start construction by the end of the year.
So in this interim period between destruction and creation, I'm going to look around, see what looks interesting architecturally.
What remains on the site? Pretty much everything except the school building. As evidenced in the first photo, the front path that led up to the main entrance is still in place. It now leads to dirt and spindly grass. There are three piles of brick, most likely saved to be reused in the pocket park.
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| School's out forever |
There's some fun finds in the brick piles. One that warmed my heart was seeing a surviving section of a brick arch that used be above one of the side doors. No idea if it was over my favorite or its duplicate on the opposite side of the building.
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| Part of one of the brick arches!! |
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| Also found in a pile was a rusty school bell |
This light pole that used to be in the middle of the parking lot is still there.
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| 2024 light pole |
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| 2023 pre-demo photo with the same light pole (left) |
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| Baseball backstop and parked cars |
Near the site's corner, the brush has been cut back so utility lines can be identified. This has also uncovered some of the wooden rail fence.
Finally, by the former playground, the forest continues to grow. The fence that surrounds that little area is still in place, but slowly disappearing behind the foliage.
So, that's what you can find at Sterling this year. Not what I expected, but still interesting. I'll see you back here one last time (knock on brick?) next year.
