The demolition of Garner

Well, the day I'd been sort of dreading arrived. Above is Garner Apartments, on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus. The picture was taken around 7 am, on the morning of February 6, the date its demolition was set to begin.

Built in 1969, Garner was, at the time, the tallest building between the northern state line and the city of Houston. More than simply a dormitory, it will be remembered as the building that would light up SFA purple after a victorious sporting event. After the demolition is complete, construction will begin on the two buildings that will take its place. More information from the The Daily Sentinel (I didn't link to the actual article, as they don't archive their articles):

Looming in the skyline next to the Garner Apartments stood its fate - the wrecking ball.

Garner's date with the ball of destruction was slated for 10 a.m., and the excitement of watching Nacogdoches' tallest building become Nacogdoches' tallest pile of bricks began to attract people from around the area to the nearby parking lots on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

A small crowd had begun to gather a little before 10, all hoping to find a good, safe seat to watch the highly anticipated show.

As the time grew closer, people began to line Wilson Drive, and the surrounding lots filled with even more people ready for the action.

Excitement and anticipation grew as 10 a.m. grew closer, and then passed. Then 10:30 a.m. came and went.

Minutes before 11 a.m., the wrecking ball rose into the air. The crowd sprang to its feet, holding kids, cameras and collective breaths.

The ball slowly swung back, then swung forward - and then lightly tapped the roof. A groan of disappointment could be heard echoing through the crowd.

The crane swung out again and brought the wrecking ball against the side again, this time a little harder.

Again and again the ball smashed against the roof, when large chunks of debris finally began to fall, the crowd yelled and cheered with excitement.

As the minutes passed, rubble slowly poured from Garner as the ball continued to rock against the side. But the show was not a spectacular as many had envisioned.

"I came out here and really wanted to see the building just collapse," said Vincent Davis, an SFA student. "But it has been slow and steady. No real 'wow' factor."

The crowd began to dwindle, settling with the thought that at least they could say they were there when it happened.

"I thought it was going to come down pretty quickly, but it's going to take all day," said Taylor Hawkings, another SFA student. "I recorded the beginning, and if I didn't have stuff to do, I'd probably stay."

Demolition is expected to last over the next three weeks, certainly longer than anyone had planned to watch.

A commenter (and former Garner resident) at a previous post about Garner was nice enough to alert me as to the time the demolition was set to begin. So I headed over to the campus, and drove past the fairly large crowd of spectators who had gathered right across the street. I noticed a woman crying, and this was before anything had even started. I headed over to a park across the street from campus, parked, and waited for it all to begin.

The picture above was my view. It seemed like the sun shone on the obsolete structure like a spotlight. Sitting there, I felt as if I was holding its hand (paw), comforting it, much like one might with an elderly pet as it was about to be put down at the end of a long life. Nearly an hour after it was set to begin, the wrecking ball began to swing. I could only bear to watch the first four or five swings, and saw enough rubble and dust fall to the ground, then headed home, sure the building would be gone next time I drove by the campus.

But it seems that the old girl will not go down as easily as at least I expected. The next morning (Sunday), it looked as it does in the picture above. This was the extent of the demolition. I've taken some comfort in the idea that Garner will not give up easily. I suppose I'd imagined something as dramatic as the demolition of the Sands. But unlike that structure (of which Garner has always reminded me), Garner's demise will be slow and ugly.


Morning of Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Garner's a goner

Oh, I'd had my fingers crossed on this one. Stuff like this just breaks my heart. Excerpts from The Daily Sentinel ("SFA's Garner Apartments' days are numbered," by Trent Jacobs), dated July 20, 2009:

It's official — the 14-story Garner Apartments at SFA will be demolished sometime in the next 12 months to make room for a new freshman residence hall and parking garage.

The Garner tower has been the tallest building in Nacogdoches since it was built in 1969. But late next month, when students enrolled in the fall semester move in, they will be the last to do so. The building will close for good in December when the semester ends.

With the demise of the Garner Apartments, which have become an iconic image of SFA's skyline, a long time tradition will also be lost: the lighting of the tower's roof to purple after an athletic victory.

That last was the idea of Dr. Ralph W. Steen, the University's third president, from 1958-1976. We're talking about some fairly large roots being pulled up here, a lot of tradition being discarded. So much has changed about the SFA campus since I was a student there, from '88 to '91. I increasingly feel less and less like it is "my" campus, and I don't like it! I suppose the freshmen who move in to the new dorms around 2010 or 2011 won't have any idea what Garner was....I guess that now, the other structures which were built around the same time as Garner (Steen Hall and East College Cafeteria) are probably also doomed. I understand the need to modernize, but it's hard to watch these landmarks come down. So it goes.


Garner, as seen behind the East College Cafeteria

SFA Theater neon

The pink "F" has been out for a couple of weeks on the SFA Theater here in Nacogdoches. But it has been repaired. It's always nice (and refreshing) to see how well this theater is maintained, despite the fact it is no longer in use. I also love the idea that the neon is lit from sunset to sunrise, every single day. That, to me, is whimsical. And whimsy is a spiritual salve.

The movies

The Main and SFA Theaters, in Nacogdoches, on 8-30 and 8-22.

It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma!

Found on the SFASU campus, Saturday morning
"Take off the blinders

Google: Larry Silverstien owner of the Word Trade Centers. Admitted on PBS that WTC 7 was brought down by a controlled demolition."

I'm not sure what the point of the chalk writer is exactly, but this site appears to back it up. You may want to don your tinfoil cap before clicking on the link, though.

Speaking of 9/11:

SFA Theater

The SFA Theater neon has been restored. Much of it was damaged by Hurricane Rita back in 2005. I have other pictures of it at Flickr.

SFA Theater

A view of the old SFA Movie Theater and its fading neon, this morning. There are more pictures of the theater at my photo blog and at flickr.