A 130-year-old brick building that formerly served as an elementary school on the east side of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, will soon be demolished.
The Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune reports that Saints Peter and Paul Parish will demolish the school building in the coming weeks.
The building was constructed in 1895 and last renovated in 1913, the Rev. Robert Schaller said. The church no longer has a use for the building and it is too expensive to maintain. Replacing the roof could cost about a quarter of a million dollars, Schaller said.
"It's an old building and so it takes a great amount of money to try to restore it," Schaller said. "We can't use it, so it doesn't make any sense to put in hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so."
Usable items from the building were salvaged over the last several months and years by parishioners and moved into the church building or distributed to other Catholic schools in the area, Schaller said.
Classes for students were last held in the building in 1999. The school's 47 students at the time were transferred to other Catholic schools.
