A former school in Orange Mound is on the national register of historic places, but some in the neighborhood don’t believe it’s a source of pride, rather a symbol of blight. Tuesday morning, several demonstrated near the ‘old’ Melrose school, which opened in 1914, demanding it be torn down for another use.
More than a dozen people passionate about the old Melrose school property made their voices heard Tuesday morning. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland also weighed in, as a neighborhood debates what to do with its former neighborhood high school, now sitting idly in disrepair.
Under the September heat, this Orange Mound group gathered, heated up again about the future of a building showing painful signs of the past.
“It’s scary. It’s spooky. It needs to come down, stone by stone, brick by brick,” says Alice Marie Batts.
“Children can’t play in it, senior citizens can’t walk past it,” says Toni Williams.
They’re upset about the former Melrose school, behind the Orange Mound Community Center. It closed in 1979, and was added to the national register of historic places in 2001. But to some in this neighborhood, it’s a decaying, crumbling eyesore.
“We want that building down because it is unsafe,” says Williams.
“That’s one of those issues that’s really tough,” says Mayor Strickland. He said not everyone in Orange Mound wants to see this building torn down, but instead renovated and preserved. “I really want the community to take leadership on this and kind of inform our decision on it.”
But this group said the sentiment is on their side to tear the old school down, while leaving a marker of significance in its place.
“We’ve already done what the Mayor told use to do with petitions, we have spoken and now we are speaking this way,” says Williams.
According to the national register of historic places, a building on that register can be torn down, as long as federal money is not attached to it. To date, no concrete redevelopment proposal for the building has come forward to city leaders.
