MCKINLEY ELEMENTARY Memories go for bargain prices

The school, built in 1918, closed to cut costs.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Bargain shoppers lined up outside the former McKinley Elementary looking for good deals and mementos.
Dawn Marzano, city schools communications director, said people were lined up outside the school before 9 a.m. for the tag sale that started at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Alford L. Novak, a city councilman, was one of the early arrivals. He, his sons and several relatives attended McKinley -- which closed at the end of the school year as a cost-cutting measure. The school was built in 1918.
"I got the bookcase from my third- grade class," Novak said, holding back tears. "There's a lot of memories here. I'm going to cry when they tear this place down."
Novak also collected a wooden bench from an upstairs hallway, playground balls and a teacher's wooden chair.
Prices ranged from $1 for small student tables and metal folding chairs to $40 for whole-room wooden coat closets. Regular classroom fare like desks, chairs, cabinets and bookcases and unusual things like refrigerators of the real and toy variety were on the list of available items.
Other treasures
Artists Craig and Leanne Thomas of Warren spent several minutes examining a piano with wood carvings that sits in the school auditorium. It was marked $25. Its heft and a lack of easily accessible ramps to move it made them change their minds.
They turned their attention to items they could use in their art, such as easels. He's a painter and she draws and sculpts.
Amy Martin of Warren, a substitute teacher in the city schools, and her three children, Andrew, 13, and twins Molly and Emily, both 9, were on a treasure hunt for a friend.
"Someone we know went here several years ago and wanted us to look for a little wooden chair, but it looks like they're all sold," Martin said.
denise_dick@vindy.com