Former Hazlewood High is razed, but fond memories of athletic powerhouse remain

Oct. 26—TOWN CREEK — Former students at a closed Lawrence County school that captured 44 state team athletic championships have remembered it fondly this month as work to raze its deteriorated building proceeds.

An Atlanta-based demolition company began work about two weeks ago tearing down the former Hazlewood High School building, built in the 1950s at 925 Wallace St. in Town Creek. The Town Council voted several months ago to demolish the building after safety concerns arose from the dilapidated and unused structure.

A future use for the site remains undetermined.

Town Creek purchased the school's building, its football field and gymnasium for about $20,000 three years after it closed following the 2008-09 academic year, Mayor Mike Parker said. He said the town didn't have any significant plans for the property at the time. The town later sold the gym back to the school district, and the county operates a senior citizen center from the school's former home economics department that's in a newer wing of the school and isn't part of the demolition.

Parker said the main school building became a home to bats and black mold that expedited the decision to raze it.

"It became a safety hazard," Parker said. "Vandalism has been taking place in the building over the past few years. The roof and ceilings were falling in."

He said asbestos removal before demolition was $50,000, and it'll cost another $140,000 for Complete Demolition Services of Atlanta to take the building down. Parker said the company has 45 days to take the site down to at least 2 feet below the foundation and fill it back in to ground level. He said the nearly $200,000 total cost will be covered by a Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act grant and the town's general fund.

He said bricks are available at no cost at the site to anyone wanting a souvenir from the school. He said the council has discussed putting a minipark at the former school's site, but nothing has been decided.

Councilman Aaron Goode didn't want to see the building disappear. He cast the lone council vote to keep it standing. He said his vote was simply symbolic.

"I knew we couldn't keep the building," he said. "I voted no because of the memories and emotions I had for that school. I could not believe it would happen because all of the history at that school."

A 1971 graduate of Hazlewood High, Goode was first a student at Hazlewood in 1967 and was the right halfback on the 1970 state championship football team. Seven years later, he was an assistant under head football coach Jackie Ferguson and a math teacher there when the school won another state championship. Goode was the school's last head football coach.

Two weeks ago, Goode was at the school when the bulldozer began dismantling the place that carried strong memories of his past. "I had mixed emotions when that work started," he said.

"It was hard to justify closing the school 12 years ago," he said of the county school board's action. "Most of the people who graduated from Hazlewood could not believe it was closed. But it needed to be torn down because it was a safety concern."

He said some of the older people who attended Hazlewood have reached out to him in the past couple of weeks. "They seem more sentimental about the school. The younger people, not so much. There was a lot of history in those halls, those walls," he said. "It's hard to believe it is gone."

Hazlewood Elementary continues to operate in Town Creek.

Goode said the Town Council didn't have the money to repurpose the high school building. "I don't think it occurred to the council that asbestos would keep us from doing much with it," he said. "All the building put up many years ago had asbestos put in them. At the time, construction companies didn't know it was harmful."

District 1 school board member Christine Garner finished at Hazlewood in 1976. Her three children all attended the school. Her oldest son, Courtney Rose, starred in football there before playing for the Auburn Tigers. Her other son, L.J. Hampton, was the starting quarterback at Hazlewood the year it closed. Her daughter, Kelley Hampton, was an eighth grader when Hazlewood's doors were shut.

"When I drove by and saw it was down, it was sad. I hated to see it go," she said. "It was a shame it was closed in the first place, but that was 12 years ago. It had become an eyesore and it was time for it to be torn down."

Alabama High School Athletic Association records show Hazlewood High won 11 state titles in football, 16 in boys track and field, 13 in girls track and field, two in girls basketball including one in 2009, in the school's last season, one boys basketball title in 1986 and one boys indoor track title.

From 1981 to 2000, Hazlewood won 19 football region titles in 20 years, Goode said. The state trophies are displayed in the town's municipal building.

Parker and Goode said their phones have been ringing in recent days with people wanting to talk about the school building coming down.

"I've had a lot of phone calls from people who want to talk about the history of the school," Parker said. "The demolition has brought back a lot of hard feelings about the closing of the school."

Garner said the school helped put Town Creek on the map.

"People knew of Town Creek because of Hazlewood High and everything the students and athletes had accomplished over the years," she said.

— mike.wetzel@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442. Twitter @DD_Wetzel.