UM-Sparrow begins demolishing old Eastern High School

Corky and Mary Ann Juarez met at Eastern High School in the 1970s.

Tuesday, the married couple, both 1975 graduates, watched as its demolition began.

“I never thought I’d see it torn down,” Corky said.

The move comes a week after University of Michigan Health-Sparrow asked the city of Lansing for permission to demolish the building for “future expansion” and a few days after the city’s planning and development director approved it.

UM-Sparrow said last year it wants to build a $97 million psychiatric facility on the property and has said the landmark school could not be adapted to that use.

E.T. MacKenzie Co. of Grand Ledge began demolition on the building’s northeast end, which housed the band room, among other facilities. The project end date is May 31, according to UM-Sparrow’s demolition application. The permit is good until Aug. 26. UM-Sparrow estimated demoliton at $2.1 million.

UM-Sparrow spokesperson Corey Alexander said Tuesday he has nothing to add to its statement a week ago that the building was “beyond repair.”

“Given these challenges, the building is being thoughtfully removed to make way for a modern facility designed specifically to meet the community’s behavioral health needs,” the statement said.

“To honor the history and legacy of Eastern High School, we are working with alumni to preserve meaningful artifacts and establish a memorial garden on the site.”

However, Jim Lynch, president of Eastern’s alumni association, said Tuesday UM-Sparrow executives haven’t talked to the alumni association for several months. “Total silence,” Lynch said.

The demolition comes a week after UM-Sparrow submitted a request to demolish the high school Feb. 25. Its application says nothing about building a psychiatric facility — just that UM wanted to demolish old Eastern for the hospital’s “future expansion.” The U of M Board of Regents has yet to consider the psychiatric facility proposal.

Rawley Van Fossen, chief of Lansing’s Economic Development and Planning Department, approved the application. Efforts to reach Van Fossen for comment today were unsuccessful.

Scott Bean, Mayor Andy Schor’s spokesperson, said last week the administration had no choice. The process limits the city to reviewing only technical issues, such as the demolition company’s license. There were no grounds for the administration or the City Council to intervene, he said.

The plan to demolish Eastern has long been controversial, with preservationists arguing the high school is one of the few remaining historical structures in Lansing. The building was designed by Irving and Allen Pond, who also designed Michigan State University and University of Michigan student unions.

The 97-year-old school opened in 1928 and closed in 2019, four years after the Lansing School Board sold it to Sparrow Health System. U of M Health acquired Sparrow two years ago.

A community group called the Coalition to Preserve Eastern High School and Promote Mental Health has advocated for preserving the structure’s west wing and auditorium. It has argued that they could be restored and repurposed. Its efforts to negotiate with UM-Sparrow have been unsuccessful. Moreover, acting under pressure from trade unons. the Council turned down a request to study whether old Eastern could be declared a historic district, which might have saved it.

An online petition from the coalition to save the high school has garnered over 800 signatures, and the group has created a website rebutting claims from UM-Sparrow that the building is in unsalvageable disrepair.

In a Feb. 27 update, Margaret Dimond, U-M Health Regional Network president, said the auditorium and west wing were “not salvageable” because of water damage. She said it would cost “hundreds of millions of dollars to bring it back to where it was even in the nineties.”

“It’s really not a place that humans should even walk through,” Dimond said.

Andrew Muylle of the Coalition to Preserve Eastern High School questioned the source of Dimond’s claims.

“We know for a fact that the entire rehab of Walter French school, which was in far worse condition than Eastern, cost around $39 million,” Muylle said. “Our question is where does that figure for water damage come from?”

Dimond said that UM-Sparrow has worked with preservation groups, but did not name any. Muylle said the coalition is unaware of any such interactions, but UM-Sparrow ceased communications with the group “months ago.”

Mayor Andy Schor issued a statement Tuesday that he loved the building and had “hoped it could be repurposed for new use.” Schor said he has shared this hope with UM-Sparrow but had been told that “rehabilitating the building would cost many millions of dollars that will instead be used for needed health care.”

“While it is tough to lose a great old building, I look forward to greater access for our residents to the behavioral health care that is needed,” he said.

Nancy Mahlow, president of the Eastside Neighborhood Organization, said UM-Sparrow called her about the demolition this morning. Mahlow mentioned that the demolition has begun on the building’s east wings, making preservation of the west wing and auditorium still possible.

“It’s not done until that wrecking ball hits the main building, so we’re going to forge on,” Mahlow said.