Six building

From Staples High Wiki

The Six building was a one-story classroom unit on the southeast side of campus, directly south of the Five building and overlooking the Athletic Fields and the South Courtyard. It is one of the original eight buildings constructed at Staples High School's North Avenue site, with most of it in 1958 and some of it added on in 1964 along with the Nine building.

The remains of the building were disused on February 17, 2006, and the building was demolished entirely by April 14, 2006, following asbestos abatement, interior demolition and actual structural demolition.

Anatomy

The building was used mostly by the English Department (as well as the Social Studies Department before the 1964 construction of the Nine building). It also was home to the Yearbook office, Culinary Arts, Child Development, as well as a few math classes in the southern sections. It is a lesser known fact that there was actually a downstairs area beneath those math classrooms called the "Lower Six building". The space had been used as classrooms and a student lounge, but it was used for storage in later years. Access to it was from a door found at the end of the ramp leading out of the lower Nine building.

Its usage changed after February 2005, when English and some Math classes moved out, and it was converted into a temporary space for the Library, Music (Band/Orchestra/Chorus) classes, as well as a few math classes and the Math Learning Center. At this time, those areas underwent their renovations and expansions. The Library consisted of four usable rooms; two computer labs across from each other, a main room for books and checking-out, and a fourth room for periodicals and study groups. Additional rooms were used for storage and offices. For the periodicals and main room, walls were knocked down to provide additional space. Music classrooms met in three seperate rooms, one for each subject; a total of seven classrooms were used for this, and the office formerly used for Math (617) was made a Music office.

The Music classes returned to the redone 4-building at the start of the 2005-2006 school year, with the two remaining rooms it occupied (some of it was demolished) being converted back to classrooms for Math as well as a makeshift area for several Guidance offices displaced by the Cafeteria renovation. The Library stayed as planned, however one of the two computer labs was taken away due to the need for additional classroom space. In January 2006, the periodical room closed due to the space needed to pack for the move back to the new Library.

Demolition

The southernmost area of the 6 building (office Room 617, and classrooms 620-623) was demolished in August 2005 in order to make room for the ongoing construction. This was the area that was added in 1964 along with the Nine building, and contained the Lower Six building.

The first signs of demolition of the remainder of the structure came as early as 16 February 2006, about a day before occupancy ended. The tan facading throughout the building was removed.

On Thursday, 23 February 2006, moving had been completed from the remaining areas of this building and public access has been discontinued. A barrier was placed to prevent public access.

Electricity was cut throughout the building by March 24, and as of Monday, March 27, demolition had commenced, with compact excavator "bobcats" bulldozing the interior. By this time, all that remained was its external structure.

Actual building demoilition commenced on April 12, and has since been completed. As of now all that remains is debris that has yet to be cleaned up and carted away.

Photos

Diagram of the 6 Building; greyed out areas have been demolished	The south end of the Six building from August 2005 to March 2006	Six-building room marker	Old Inklings office sign
Writing on the chalkboard to commemorate	A Six-building classroom	An almost-abated classroom (24 March 2006)	Interior demolition of building
Building gets demolished