A visit to Oliver to view the remains of the school fire. Still a few bits of smouldering timber. An acrid choking stench in the air. Chunks of half-burnt roof tar littered over the beautiful grass of the adjoining park. The older portion of the school from 1948 is all a pile of rubble; the new parts, gym, science center, library, and cafeteria are all intact, as they were fireproof. No news yet as to cause, but the experts are looking into it. A few more days and plans for the 500 students will be in place....
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| Remains of old school |
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| Landslide |
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| Oliver Apples |
A piece of good news. Frank Venables' grandson was in the auditorium two weeks ago, and discovered a nice framed portrait photo of Frank kicking about there, so he brought it to his mother to look after. The family is looking forward to re-building the auditorium and re-hanging the portrait there, at some unknown date in the future !
( Older pictures from Oliver can be seen starting
here.)
4 comments:
The apples are so tempting!
How much I miss when I don't read your blog for a few days... The fire is terrible. No doubt some students will be pleased to be off school but they won't be so thrilled in the longer term when they have to have classes in temporary classrooms - as no doubt they will!
I must admit, whenever there is a fire locally or a mill is demolished, or a house falls down, I tend to try and nip out and photograph it. Such events should be recorded, and now that the internet has made us all world archivists, I always feel that I am capturing a bit of history.
I have a reputation for photographing or painting pictures of buildings just before they fall down, get demolished, or burn up. The Frank Venables Auditorium is yet another example!
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