Alumni Closing the Books on Old, Decaying School

Karl Fanning tried to maintain an air of studied detachment Tuesday as he picked his way through the remains of Brea-Olinda High School, where he graduated in 1933 and spent two decades teaching science classes.

But the 74-year-old alumnus could not help but wince at the sight of a bulldozer crashing through the Fine Arts Building, its huge steel claws unceremoniously prying apart the classrooms inside.

“You can’t help but have some feelings,” Fanning said softly as he stood by and watched the demolition.

Brea-Olinda High School, opened in 1927, has not quite been reduced to rubble, but will be soon. A wrecking ball is scheduled to smash into the school’s towering main building within two weeks, wiping out the last reminder of the landmark institution.

New Shopping Center

The school is being bulldozed to make way for a new shopping center. After a final graduating class last spring, those who enrolled for this fall were transferred to the new Brea-Olinda High School, a sleek, modern, $36-million facility atop a hill within view of its doomed namesake.

The death knell for old Brea-Olinda was inevitable, school district officials say. The 62-year-old facility was falling apart. According to Edgar Z. Seal, superintendent of the Brea-Olinda Unified School District, it would have cost $22 million to repair.

“The ceilings were falling down. The plumbing was gone. It was ridiculous,” Seal said.

Proceeds for the new school have come in part from the $5 million sale of the campus’ 12-acre property to Loe Development of Brentwood, which plans to build a small shopping center containing a dozen or so stores. The center is scheduled to open in October.

The demolition project, begun in early November, has aroused nostalgia among those who have fond memories of the old school. Built during the Roaring ‘20s when the surrounding countryside was dotted with citrus fields instead of shopping malls and freeways, the school bridged three generations of students.

Retired teacher Maxine Whisnant, known affectionately as Miss Whiz by her students, spent 37 1/2 years teaching and administering at Brea-Olinda. She remembered the good times, as well as the bad.

“The ‘40s were among the best because it was after the war and kids were filled with an idealism and a zest and they made their own fun,” said Whisnant, 74, who now lives in Laguna Beach. “The ‘60s, however, were real bad. There was no school pride. There was a selfish, ‘gimme’ attitude.”

Sharon Dean, 50, a retired Brea school board member who graduated from the school in 1957, remembered the festivity that accompanied Brea-Olinda’s football games, which were played on Friday afternoons because there was not yet nighttime stadium lighting.

“The business people used to close their stores,” Dean recalled. “Everyone would go to the football game.”

Brea Mayor Pro Tem Wayne D. Wedin was student body president of the Class of ’57 and a tackle on the Brea-Olinda Wildcats.

“We went into CIF (California Interscholastic Federation football playoffs) that year,” Wedin said. “Brea was legendary as a football powerhouse.”

Wedin, an economic development consultant, is among many alumni who feel mixed emotions at the school’s demolition.

“I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t indicate that it really kind of tugs at you,” Wedin said. “There are a lot of buildings on that campus and it makes you a little sad. On the other hand, I know the quality of education will be a lot better” at the new school.

The school was originally built, Fanning recalled, so children in Brea would not have to attend classes in Fullerton, which had the only high school around. Although most of the students for the new school were from Brea, Fanning said, some also came from the now-defunct community of Olinda, where oil-field workers lived. Hence the name. The yearbook was titled “The Gusher” in observance of Brea’s oil boom during the 1920s.

The 1930s ushered in Brea-Olinda’s status as a football powerhouse. In 1933, the varsity team brought home an Orange County championship, according to a history of the school that has been compiled by the Brea Historical Society.

After the outbreak of World War II in 1941, military units were stationed on campus. An air-watch station was installed on the roof of the mail building and, in 1944, a “service flag” was hung in the front hall of the school, with stars added for each male student who joined the armed forces, the historical account said.

The 1950s saw major expansion of the school to accommodate burgeoning enrollment. A new science wing was constructed, as well as a cafeteria and a home economics building.

Then came the 1960s. As Whisnant remembered teaching during that decade, “The students thought adults were all high-grade cretins and we didn’t know what was going on.”

The campus went back to normal after the early ‘70s. New shopping centers and office developments began to crowd the campus, enticing some students to skip classes and hang out in the stores, Fanning said.

Brea-Olinda’s final decade has seen a gradual deterioration in its facilities. According to Seal, the plumbing had corroded to such an extent that some of it had actually eaten into the walls. A prelude to the end came a year ago when the girl’s gymnasium burned down.

In July, a Last Hurrah celebration marked the school’s passing. About 2,000 alumni turned out to tour the beloved facility one more time.

Tuesday, Fanning walked with a visitor through the demolition site, surveying the classrooms which he and his wife, Inez, attended between 1929 and 1933 and in which he later taught between 1956 and 1977.

Although workers had ripped out much of the floor and roofing materials of the main building, it was still recognizable. Blackboards and classrooms were visible through shattered glass windows. One debris-strewn hallway still had its lockers intact. Inside one was scrawled the message: “Melissa: Good luck with Bobby. You guys ‘R’ soooo cute 2 gether!”

Some artifacts will be preserved. A cornerstone containing a 1920s time capsule was unearthed recently and deposited in City Hall for safekeeping. Some bricks and other remnants of the building have been put on display in the new school.

And the “practice building”--a small facility in which female students used to practice housekeeping skills--has been moved intact to a nearby vacant lot. Local preservationists are hoping to find it a permanent site.

Fanning encountered a former student Tuesday who, like himself, had returned to the school one last time. Jack Smith, a ’64 graduate who is now a Brea city building inspector, reminisced with his old science instructor about the old days.

“Yes, it’s kind of sad to see it go,” Smith said in front of the school as he sat in his idling city truck.