School razed; replacement nearly ready

The old Columbia Adventist Academy school is demolished Wednesday. Finishing touches on the new classroom building, constructed nearby, will be done when students arrive in August. (Photos by Steven Lane/The Columbian)

Principal Matthew Butte got to move into his new building at Columbia Adventist Academy a bit ahead of everybody else.

He didn’t have much choice: The building that contained his old office was set on fire Tuesday — by the fire department — and then smashed to rubble Wednesday.

"I’m working in the office in the new building now," Butte said.

This week’s devastation was all part of the makeover at Columbia Adventist. The new high school building is the centerpiece of a $6 million capital campaign on the Meadow Glade campus southwest of Battle Ground.

The classroom building is expected to open on schedule in August when more than 100 students in grades nine through 12 report for class.

A couple of other vintage buildings already have come down on the grounds of the 106-year-old academy: the home-economics building and the boiler room, which had a more interesting past than many institutional heating plants.

Longtime local residents told Butte that the boiler had originally been part of a railroad locomotive.

When it was time for the 62-year-old school to come down, local firefighters scheduled a training exercise, setting the building ablaze Tuesday so they could practice putting it out.

When the rubble is cleared, the building’s footprint will become a landscaped area.

"The new building was built on a grassy area, so we lost that green space," Butte said. "Now we’ll get some back.

"Way down the road, that site might be used to build a gymnasium. We’re still in Phase 1 of this project, and that would be Phase 3 or 4," Butte said.