Historic old high school roof collapses
Eager youngsters crowd in front of the door at Lincoln Elementary School Tuesday morning waiting for the 1967-1968 term to begin. Photo from the Sept. 7, 1967, files of The Western News.
Sideview of the damages caused by weather to the school building on Lincoln Boulevard. (Bethany Rolfson/TWN)
The roof of old school building on Lincoln Boulevard collapsed Wednesday morning. The city sealed off the outside of the building for safety purposes, but many stopped their cars to see the extent of the damages to the historic building. (Bethany Rolfson/TWN)
Just shy of its 100th birthday, a building that’s been a high school, elementary school, community college and once promised to become condos — a building that was once spared from a wrecking ball and the source major lawsuit — had part of its roof collapse this week.
The recent snow event that brought from two to four feet of snow across Libby was too much for the roof of the circa-1917 building.
After Wednesday morning, the damage is visible from the sidewalk as sunlight falls inside the massive hole in the roof and through the exterior windows in the once-dark building — the east-facing brick wall left bent and crumbling.
Outside, people in cars pull over to look at the damage and pedestrians stop in their tracks to get a glimpse behind the taped-off lot.
A building that hasn’t received much attention in years is suddenly a spectacle.
The portion of the roof that collapsed was an part of an addition, built in 1926.
The old high school has been vacant since the Lincoln County Campus of Flathead Valley Community College moved out in 2000 — but still has managed to be the source of headlines since then.
In 2004, the Libby School Board moved forward with a plan to sell or demolish the property.
After that, the school board had at various times voted in favor of demolishing the structure as well as to entertained offers for preservation by selling it to a group called Friends of Historic Libby High School.
The building was a topic of debate around town. Some people wanted to preserve the structure — others wanted it torn down.
Efforts to stop the building from being demolished put that option to rest, and district residents voted 70 percent in favor of selling the building in May, 2004.
Eric Berry once had a dream for the building in 2008, when he and Scott Curry purchased the building and planned to turn it into condominiums through their company, Libby Lofts.
Berry would die in a motorcycle accident soon after and the condos were announced to be completed in the spring of 2009.
After that, Curry, being the sole owner and behind the initial schedule, changed course with the project and decided to make senior apartments in the building instead of condominiums.
In the fall of 2010, the building was the source of a lawsuit, when Libby Lofts filed suit in the 19th Judicial District Court accusing three of its investors of sabotaging efforts to raise money for the project.
The investors reacted with a counter-lawsuit, alleging that Curry misappropriated their investment and intentionally failed to disclose the financial condition of Libby Lofts when they agreed to invest.
Since the project never took off, the building has been left empty.