Footage of the Faribault Junior High School Demolition from 1989

Time passes, new buildings pop up and sometimes old buildings are taken down. I recently came across video footage from April 1989 of the demolition of the old Faribault Junior High School. 

Throughout the video, the wrecking ball is viewed making repeated swings and knocking over more and more of the brick structure. During this process, a time capsule dated 1913 is uncovered. It is retrieved and toward the end of the video, we witness attempts to reveal the contents of the time capsule. Those contents will be revealed in another video.

The old Faribault Junior High School was on Fourth Street, in the location where the Rice County Government Building now sits. It was a brick building with large front steps and was torn down in 1989. The current Faribault Middle School was built in 1985. For most people, school is a large part of your youth and whether you loved class, or couldn't wait for the bell to ring, it likely gave you a few memories. I asked coworkers Paul Benzick and Mike Eiler, who both attended the old Faribault Junior High, what they remembered about the building.  Paul immediately said that "It had a huge auditorium that was really nice and had a lot of seating." He also reflected on shooting guns in the basement of the school as part of firearm safety training. Paul remembered that the main hallway was incredibly wide, but that other hallways were quite narrow. Mike Eiler did not hesitate to say that the old Faribault Junior High "was a maze of hallways," and remembered that sometimes it was easier to exit the building, run around the outside and re-enter than to get stuck in gridlock in the hallways. Mike also commented on the auditorium saying that the stage was also a gym floor and was used for a basketball court.

Coming soon, we'll see what was inside the time capsule in part two of the video!