NEW CASTLE A plea to save historical homes

School officials plan to build a new campus-style school.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- It was only a week ago that Susan Martin learned her ancestral home was to be demolished, but the Greensboro, N.C., woman believes it can be saved.
Martin, the great-granddaughter of New Castle industrialist Percy Linwood Craig, pleaded with city school board members to save 214 E. Lincoln Ave. and homes at 10 other addresses from being razed to make room for a new city high school.
The homes, some dating to the 1800s, and the 91-year-old high school are to be demolished to make room for a campus-style school.
School board members met Monday to award the $64,847 contract for demolition of the homes to Siegel Excavating of Edinburg. They will be razed no later than May 3, school officials said.
Construction plans call for the school to be razed in about a year.
Statement: "It's incredibly wrong," Martin said after Monday's meeting. "I came here to make a difference and try to save this house and the others and add emotion and feeling to the matter. But the school board didn't want to hear it. My next move is to mobilize my cousins and seek advice from an attorney."
Others at Monday's meeting opposed to the building project also asked school board members to wait on demolition until they received final approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Visitors also questioned the feasibility of the project when the district expects a financial deficit next year.
School district officials said the state education department has approved demolition plans and the financing for the building project. Other approvals needed involve the awarding of construction contracts and other items that must be done after construction begins.
Response: "I have sympathy with the historical value and the people involved, but where were you years ago? ... Some of those buildings were owned by slumlords. We gave them to the city for $1 each, and they tore those houses apart and gave them back," said Peter Yerage, board member.
School officials put off the building project for about six months when city officials asked to move four of the larger homes, including Martin's family home, about a block away to create a business cul-de-sac. City officials returned the keys to the houses earlier this year when they decided it was financially unfeasible to move them.
School board members say anyone could have bought the houses, which were offered through public bid.
Martin said she just learned of the project last Tuesday from an elderly aunt who lives in New York. Her family hasn't lived in the three-story brick home since the 1940s but has always taken an interest in their New Castle heritage.
She visited New Castle and the house in 1992 when she was living in Pittsburgh with her husband for five months as he underwent a liver transplant. She felt compelled to return when she learned of the demolition plans.
"History is important. The reason my family enjoys the privileges we enjoy is because of our history here in New Castle," she said. "I want to make sure [the house] is there for future generations of our family and others."
Also fighting: Others are also working to save the buildings.
"We are not going away. We still have an awful lot of fight left in us because we believe in our cause. When this is said and done we'll feel good about our fight," said Robert Presnar, executive director of the Lawrence County Historical Society and a member of People for Community Integrity, an offshoot organization.