Lutheran High School's campus on West Washington Street has a date with the wrecking ball
Lutheran High School's Washington Street campus will be torn down this summer after damage sustained to its building, including separation of walls and dropping of floors, due to mine subsidence on the southwest side of the city.
The damage was discovered last Father's Day weekend, prompting the school to move classes to Springfield First Church of the Nazarene on the city's south side last August.
The school's board of directors made the decision about the demolition in concert with officials from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and Hanson Professional Services, said interim principal Zack Klug, reached Thursday.
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The board is reviewing site options, including buying property to build a school, and has retained an architect, said Klug, who took over the school's leadership in July.
The school has an enrollment of about 150 students. The building, about 40,000 square feet in size and at 3500 W. Washington St., has been added onto several times through the years. It sits on 26 acres owned by the Lutheran High School Association of Greater Springfield.
An engineer with Hanson suggested to high school officials last summer that the building not be used from "a general life safety standpoint."
Klug said there has been "a significant amount of damage since July," when that suggestion was made.
"You're starting to see bending and damage in places that weren't (damaged before) from the stress," he said. "It's everywhere."
School officials and IDNR continue to monitor the situation, though all school operations have been moved out.
The board, which is made up of representatives from the seven Lutheran (LCMS) churches in Springfield and the immediate surrounding area, is open to any possibility, including an already constructed building, Klug said. That site would need to have the property for athletic facilities and parking, and "in Springfield, that's been hard to find," he admitted.
There have been several mine subsidence incidents in the area of LuHi over the past several decades, including at Lewis Memorial Christian Village and in neighborhoods further west.
Subsidence is the sinking of land surface, commonly resulting from underground mining.
Officials from IDNR's Abandoned Mines Lands Reclamation Division, told The State Journal-Register last summer that damage to LuHi came from a "sag" type subsidence.
That's when something has happened to the underground pillars that hold up the roof of the shaft. Either the floor underneath the pillars – areas where coal wasn't excavated – was giving way or there is some type of sloughing going on.
School will return to Church of the Nazarene, 5200 Sixth St. Frontage Rd. E., this fall, Klug said. There was "a three-year conversation" from the start between school and church officials, he added.
"We're making the best of the situation," Klug said. "We're working hard to provide the best education that we can given the circumstances. There's a desire to be in our own facility as soon as possible."
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Klug said things were just starting to get back to get back to normal in February or March 2022 after the COVID-19 pandemic when "we had to look at a move and a change of scenery and familiarity with learning spaces" several months later. "It brought more of that stress back. So, it's been three straight years of change and differences and it's caused fatigue among our staff (and students)."
The school's popular summer camps will move to Our Saviour's and Trinity Lutheran schools over the summer.
LuHi will continue using its outdoor athletic facilities on the campus for practices and games, Klug said.
Ward 9 Ald. Jim Donelan said he intended to reach out to school officials soon.
"Obviously, that's a sad situation. It's unfortunate," Donelan said Thursday. "The history and the viability of that school, not only for the traditional school, but for so many summer kids and summer programs, it's just sad to see. It is an important part of the west side and an important part of Ward 9."
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Lutheran High School on West Washington in Springfield will be razed
