Neighbors in the Riverside community, Maria Persico, Jen Dutson, Nicole Herbert outside William Penn. Photo by Dani Fresh.
Neighbors of a school building slated for imminent demolition have many questions, as the structure is slated to come down starting next week.
Several residents of the Riverside community voiced concerns about how the demolition of the century-old William Penn building will impact their community and indicated they’ve received virtually no communication from the Harrisburg School District about the demo.
“It seems like it should be their responsibility to communicate with everybody,” said neighbor Nicole Herbert. “There’s people on both sides of Division Street who are going to be really impacted. We really have no idea what to expect.”
On Thursday afternoon, the district sent out a press release saying that the old William Penn High School building will begin to be demolished on Tuesday.
The building, which has sat vacant and deteriorating for years, has been the source of a years-long back-and-forth between the district administration, school board and community. There has been debate over what to do with it—sell, demolish or repurpose—as the district has borne the cost of insuring and securing the property, which is often a target of vandalism and arson, over the last 15 years.
While the school board voted to raze the building in February and approved $6.8 million in demo contracts this spring, until this week, the date of the demolition had not been made public.
School board vice president Autumn Anderson said that the board was only notified of the demo date this past Tuesday.
Neighbors say that they have not received any notice or communication from the district about the demo, which they are worried could affect their quality of life, health and homes.
“How are they going to bring the building down? Are they going to dynamite it? Are they going to use a wrecking ball?” said Melanie Cook, who lives on N. 3rd Street.
“How are they going to make that environmentally sound—that deconstruction?” resident Jen Dutson added.
“Should we not be here when it’s happening? Should we not be here during the day?” asked Herbert.
Residents say that they have not gotten any answers to these questions and that Thursday’s press release didn’t address most of their concerns.
Need to Know
TheBurg reached out to the school district with additional questions, following the press release. Superintendent Benjamin Henry said officials needed time to review the request and would reply Monday.
The district did confirm, via email, that demolition is estimated to take six months to complete, putting the estimated completion date in early 2027, and that no explosives would be used.
Fence surrounding William Penn. Photo by Dani Fresh.
In Thursday’s release, the district said that all internal asbestos remediation in the building has been completed and that exterior remediation will continue through mid-July. When asked for further clarification, the district said that the initial demo will take place far away from where external remediation is ongoing.
In April, district Chief of Operations John Reedy said that an asbestos audit conducted at William Penn revealed that the building’s windows are glazed with asbestos and that there is asbestos on a portion of the roof. Officials said that windows containing asbestos will be entirely removed by certified professionals.
The district has said that it hired an asbestos consultant that performs regular asbestos air testing, which has concluded that out of 136 air samples taken between June 2 and July 10, no tests have come back positive. Testing will be ongoing, they said.
Still, neighbors raised concerns over other hazards, like lead, and potential impacts to water quality and ground safety.
In a statement Thursday, the district said that they would “do their best to control both noise and dust during the demolition process,” and that they are working with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to ensure that contractors hired for the project work in compliance with environmental laws.
“A lot of us work from home,” nearby resident Dani Fresh said. “If I need to make arrangements, I need to know.”
Neighbors of William Penn said that the only direct communication they’ve received about the demo has been in the form of a DEP Office of Environmental Justice representative wandering through their neighborhood.
Cook and Herbert said that Eli Downie, the regional coordinator for the office, approached them when they were outside with some pamphlets on what the office does and about asbestos remediation. Other neighbors said that they were home that day, but no one knocked on their door.
Cook said that Downie couldn’t answer her questions on the spot, so she followed up with a list of questions but received no response.
TheBurg could not immediately reach a representative from the DEP for comment.
Reaching Out
Cook said that the school district’s lack of communication and failure to share information with the public have been ongoing issues.
“You really have to understand the history,” Cook said. “The district may say, ‘We don’t understand. Why didn’t these neighbors reach out earlier?’ And the fact is, people have been reaching out over the course of years and there’s little or no response.”
Cook sat on the William Penn Task Force, which was formed in September 2023 to gather feedback from community members on what to do with the William Penn building and its grounds.
The task force was formed after the then state-appointed receiver, Lori Suski, halted a previous demo plan after backlash from community members, who said they never had a chance to weigh in.
In January 2024, that task force recommended preserving the building and using it for career and technical training.
However, earlier this year, district Superintendent Benjamin Henry recommended demolishing the building and constructing athletic fields on the land, citing that as the “best” path forward.
“Regardless of what the community says it wants, whoever the new superintendent is comes in, starts at square one,” Cook said. “It’s like, well, that’s not what anybody here wants to see done. From the very beginning of this process, there has not been community input.”
What happens next to the land has yet to be decided, as the board has not yet approved any future plans for the site. However, the district’s most recent Capital Improvement Plan noted the administration has proposed turning the land into soccer fields. The district said that formal recommendations for the site may be presented to the board in the next year.
When it comes to preparing for whatever may come next, the district allotted roughly $25,000 for compaction testing—to ensure the site of the building can be built on later, if needed.
Still, Cook said she thought that demoing before making a plan for the land was “putting the cart before the horse.”
Overall, residents wish they had more information about what the next week and the following months will bring.
“We all want to know: What is the process for demolition? What are environmental concerns?” said Fresh. “They’ve communicated none of this with us and it is very apparent that they’ve avoided it.”
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