Midland School demolition hearing

MIDLAND A public hearing was held Monday at the Midland Town Hall primarily to review an application for the demolition of the old Midland School building, which the town proposed to submit to the state by a May 31 deadline.

At the end of the town meeting, a unanimous decision was made to try to obtain funding from the Maryland Community Development Block Grant Program and begin the demolition of the old school.

The old Midland School, located at 15010 Paradise St., was constructed in two separate parts beginning in 1899. The addition was completed in 1923. The school has been closed since the mid 1970s.

The building was originally comprised of a two-story, five-bay wide, brick structure and was built during a time when nearly half of the countys schools were log structures.

James Thrasher, a coal stripper who lived in Midland, leased the old Midland School from the county in 1975 and opened a carriage museum to showcase his collection to the community.

The museum remained in the old school building until Thrasher died in 1987. It was reopened at the Depot Center in Frostburg in 1991.

Current Midland Mayor Richard Blair said that after the museum closed, the town used the auditorium of the school as a utility building until a new utility building was constructed.

The school, then completely empty, started to rapidly deteriorate, Blair said, and an asset really turned into a liability.

Former mayor and current Town Administrator Craig Alexander said the school was one of the centers of the community during its time in operation and that he has many fond memories of the students and teachers during his time at the school in the 1960s.

But Alexander and the community of Midland agreed that it was time to take action and begin the demolition of his old elementary school.

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Midland School demolition hearing