- UM-Health Sparrow has filed a demolition permit with the City of Lansing to demolish the old Eastern High School building
- Hospital officials say the old building won't be renovated while neighbors continue calls to preserve the school.
- Video shows neighbors picketing outside city hall and UM-Health leaders speaking on the topic
Orange sandbags held down the fences keeping people out of the old Eastern High School building in Lansing.
Wooden boards blinded the windows on the school's west wing that peak out at Pennsylvania Avenue, trapping generations of memories inside.
Faye Norris, whose four sisters and mother attended the high school, graduated from Eastern in 1968 and says the school is hallowed ground neighbors.
WATCH: LAST CLASS GRADUATES FROM EASTERN HIGH SCHOOL
"To see the building boarded up and everything just brings tears to my eyes," Norris said.
The Lansing School District sold the building and property to University of Michigan Health-Sparrow in 2016.
Last summer, the hospital announced a $97 million project to build a 120-bed psychiatric facility on the 18-acre property.
This week, the hospital filed a demolition permit to demolish the school and make way for the facility's construction to begin this year.
WATCH: WILL THE FORMER EASTERN HIGH SCHOOL BE DEEMED AS A 'DESIGNATED HISTORIC' LOCATION?
Norris and others were picketing outside Lansing City Hall to call for Mayor Andy Schor to block the demolition.
"He can do that. It's possible for him to do that," Linda Peckham said.
Peckham, a local historian and former president of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing.
Peckham, part of the Coalition to Preserve Eastern High School and Promote Mental Health, says they only want to save part of the building.
"The part that we're interested in saving is the part on Pennsylvania Avenue that is the glorious west wing and auditorium," Peckham said.
UM Health Regional Network President Margaret Dimond shared some images of concept art showing project's preserving the school's arches and adding a greenspace.
WATCH: RESIDENTS RAISE CONCERNS ABOUT UM-HEALTH SPARROW MENTAL HEALTH PLANS AT FORMER EASTERN HIGH SCHOOL
Peckham and Norris wanted the hospital keep the west wing and auditorium and renovate them both for use.
"It's great that there's an emotional attachment [to the building] but I don't see any community foundation that has the funding right now to do what the preservationists want to do," Dimond said.
Both ladies weren't impressed when I showed them the renderings of the projects the hospital had in mind to appease preservationists.
"One arch saved from the building is not preservation. It's not restoration. It's not anything," Peckham said.
"To me, it's just piecemeal," Norris said. "It just doesn't mean much to me."
Despite pleas from neighbors, Dimond says renovation to the old grounds is unlikely since the cost to do so woruld be around $100 million.
"The level of water intrusion and other things in that building make it very expensive to renovate," Dimond said.
Dimond says the demolition permit could take 10 days or two weeks to process. Once processed, demolition would follow and take around four to six months.
"Wed a new behavioral health facility in the Lansing area," Dimond said.
Peckham says the coalition supports the construction of the mental health facility but adds that the coalition was left out of conversations.
Peckham is hoping the hospital will give the coalition more opportunity for input.
"It hardly needs restoration," Peckham said. "It's in great shape in spite of what you hear from U of M."
A spokesperson for Mayor Andy Schor sent this statement to Fox 47 News in response:
“I have long said that I love the former Eastern High School building, and hope that it could be repurposed for new use. And I was happy to work with the advocates to initiate conversations between the parties.
The reality now, though, is that UM has plans to create over a hundred behavioral health beds, which are essential for our community, as well as ambulatory and other services that will take up the entire former Easter campus.
They have applied for a demolition permit and, if they meet the statutory requirements, city staff are legally required to issue the permit. While I have shared my hope for the building to be reused, I have been told that rehabilitating the building would cost many millions of dollars that will instead be used for needed health care.
As beautiful as the building is, there is no identifiable use for it as it has been vacant and deteriorating for many years. We are in unprecedented times and expanding mental and behavioral health services to those in the community who need them is so important.
A new facility on this site is critical, and the entire site is needed to accomplish this. I am acutely aware of the wishes of those in the community who want the owners to do more to save portions of the building while still creating these behavioral health beds, and I understand that UM is working with the Eastern Alumni to save as much as they can and create a memorial of some sort.
While tough to lose a great old building, I look forward to the greater access for our residents to the behavioral health care that is needed.”
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