When Carol Kyrimes heard her alma mater, Miles Bryan School in McKees Rocks, might be restored and turned into condominiums after sitting empty for more than 10 years, she was brought to tears.
"When you get to be my age, you start to realize that the things you knew are no longer around," said Kyrimes, 66, of Washington. "To have someone realize there was something there, to realize there was something special, to realize it had worth, that's wonderful."
McKees Rocks Community Development Corp. is negotiating to buy the property from Tom Blumling and renovate the school into about 20 loft-style condominiums, said Taris Vrcek, executive director. The sale is scheduled to close Jan. 1. Blumling and the late Jack Sobeck bought the property for $50,000 in 2001. Its assessed value is $14,900.
The school has been abandoned since it closed in 1997 when officials determined it would cost $2.6 million to renovate the school, a price deemed too expensive by the school board. Volunteers mowed and cut weeds around the nearly 45,000-square-foot property this summer, but the building is crumbling and covered in graffiti.
The school was built in 1928 and named for a long-time justice of the peace who helped build McKees Rocks Bridge in 1931. Miles Bryan High School -- commonly known as McKees Rocks High School -- became Sto-Rox Middle School in 1966 when McKees Rocks and Stowe school districts merged.
Vrcek said he hopes the condominiums would attract a professional crowd because of its location -- close to Downtown. Classrooms would be turned into apartments, while the gym and auditorium could become a fitness center or transformed into other amenities, he said.
"Here is one of our beautiful natural resources in the middle of our community that has been pretty much forgotten," Vrcek said.
Widespread publicity about the effort was generated this month at the "Run Your Rox Off" 5K run/walk fundraiser at the school. Vrcek said he heard from many residents who had forgotten about their former school and were excited about revitalizing it.
Kyrimes said she attended the high school during an era when Pittsburgh was a steel town and there was little greenery in the area. The school grounds were an oasis for residents, she said.
"Growing up, I thought you had to be rich to have grass," she said, joking.
The only thing she hated were the steps that led from the street up the hill to the school. She still remembers that there are exactly 102 of them, since she climbed them every day after a mile-and-a-half walk from home, Kyrimes said.
"If it can be helped, and if it can in turn bring people in to help McKees Rocks, it will have fulfilled its function," she said. "Like the circle of life."
Larger text
Smaller text
Print this article
E-mail this article
