Historic Baldwin County school torn down to make way for new park

STOCKTON, Ala. ( WKRG ) — The last of the brick-and-mortar that once was Vaughn Elementary is all but gone.

“It was something like a community center to us,” but back in the day, it was where 85-year-old Lawrence Stevens went to school. “From grade one through 9.”

Watching it being reduced to rubble is hard,

“It’s a disgrace,” he said.

But what one man sees as a loss, another sees as an opportunity for an entire community.

“We have a blank slate to work with as far as recreation,” Baldwin County Engineer Frank Lundy said. “That’s the intent of the property.”

The school board owns the property and will be transferred to the county once the demolition is complete. That’s when the real work will begin to determine what it will look like in the future, according to Lundy.

“This is a benefit for the Vaughn community, so we certainly need the input and the engagement of the community to see what’s best for them,” Lundy said.

Stevens believes the school should have been rebuilt.

“Any community without a church and a school is a dying community,” he said.

The county hopes the new improvements will prove him wrong.

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