Crescent school rooms tumble at WCYF
By SHANNON CRABTREE scrabtree@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Shannon Crabtree Now Just A Memory Four classrooms of the former Crescent school district met the steel claw of this D-A-M Services piece of heavy machinery Monday on the Wharton County Youth Fair grounds. The area, used as a beer garden by the fair, will be used for open displays during the 2008 fair.

As the giant steel claw crashed into the brick and termite torn wood of the Wharton County Youth Fair's beer garden Monday, another section of the Crescent School became just a memory.

"That's history going down," Creative Arts Chairperson Barbara Socha said as she stood in the bright sunlight, eyes shaded, watching the donated DA M Services machine turn timber into trash.

Her sister, Lorraine Ermis Kocurek, attended the school in 1950 - sometime between when the red bricks labeled "Houston" were stacked with mortar and coated with yellow tan paint.

"I don't know why they painted the brick," former Crescent school attendee James Petersen said as he and brother Charles collected a few torn from the walls. "I guess they thought it looked better."

L-N Photo byShannon Crabtree Collecting Memories Charles Petersen of El Campo collects bricks from the old Crescent school building Monday as D-A-M Services started demolition. The site will be used for open displays this year with the beer garden relocating to the gym.

The two brothers plan to use them as souvenirs or as a sidewalk.

"There used to be a study hall with desks," Charles Peterson said. "Like all the rest I hate to see it go, but those 2x4s? They are completely ate through with termites."

Now cleared for four former classrooms, the area will be used for open display this year with the youth fair planning it as a covered pavilion in the future.

From the Depression era to 1961 when the rural Crescent School District consolidated with El Campo Independent School District, youngsters from Glen Flora to Lakeview and Taiton traveled the hallways under the watchful gaze of a Judge Roy Bean mural.

"This was a real landmark in 1934," James Petersen said. "The high school was established then. If it wasn't for that the fairgrounds wouldn't be here."

D- A-M Services of El Campo donated the demolition work to the fair, owner David Allgayer said. Wharton County Precinct 4 agreed to supply trucks to haul the debris away.

"We did the other section last year (for a price)," Allgayer said. "But we try to help out. Last year was about $6,000 and this is pretty comparable."

It took Bruce Allgayer operating heavy equipment less than an afternoon to reduce the area to rubble.

The First Annual Wharton County Youth Fair and Exposition was held on the Crescent grounds in late March, early April 1977.

The nine-acre Crescent school site had been purchased Feb. 17, 1976 for $20,000 with the newly-formed non-profit adding an additional 31 acres of adjoining land from Mr. and Mrs. Leo Meismer for $33,515.55 on May 15 of the same year.

In 1995, an additional 58 acres were added to the fairgrounds.