The test of time: Celebration planned for buildings saved from demolition

To commemorate the anniversary of the Citizens for Backus/AB Committee saving the building from demolition, a celebration is being planned for 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Backus.

“This is a real milestone for Backus,” said Ward Merrill, executive director. “People are really excited.”

Those involved in saving the Backus Community Center from demolition more than a decade ago, agree that it doesn’t seem like so much time has passed since the International Falls School Board agreed to sell the E.W. Backus Auditorium and Alexander Baker School complex to the Citizens for Backus/AB Committee.

Kay Arnold was involved in the efforts to save Backus and is still active on the board of directors and a volunteer today. Arnold said she recalls a rush of emotions following the board’s decision.

“Exhilarating, thankful, happy, nervous, all in one,” she said.

The decision from the school board came on July 31, 2002 — six years after discussions on demolishing the building began.

In 1996, former Daily Journal Editor Tom Klein wrote that an August hail storm left the now 98-year-old Alexander Baker school building with roof damages of more than $100,000. Questions were raised if the building that was used as storage was worth saving.

“Demolition is the least expensive option, but the debate is about more than money,” Klein wrote.

A determined grassroots committee formed to combine efforts, funds, and ideas to save the AB and adjacent Backus buildings. Arnold said the group wrote several letters to the editor of The Daily Journal and spoke to as many people around the community who would listen. She said many people from both sides of the border came together to help raise money.

“I will never forget the young 11-year-old girl who had a Koolaid stand and gave the $11 made from it to the Backus project,” she recalled. “It was truly a community, grassroots project.”

Patti Ballan, board of directors president, said as she became involved in the project, there was always the concerns that the committee’s efforts would fall short.

“There was political and community opposition,” she said of the perception that surrounded saving Backus.

Arnold, however, erased doubts from her mind.

“That whole time I never thought it would fail,” she said of the committee’s efforts. “I always thought positive and had faith in this great community. The visions of what it could become for the community was always on my mind...did it happen overnight? No. But it did happen? Thanks to this great community.”

Merrill said Thursday’s celebration is expected to be a joyous occasion with a complimentary spaghetti dinner accompanied by slideshows and stories.

“We’re hoping to have people who were opposed to saving Backus 10 years ago share their stories of how they changed their minds,” he said.

The executive director said he envisions the next 10 years just as successful as the last. He said the board of directors has set itself a huge goal of developing the still vacant AB Building.

“We’re looking at what is financially possible,” he said.

Several discussions have been surrounded turning the building into some kind of housing project, and Merrill hopes to see an outcome within the next five or six years.

“We haven’t given up on that building,” he said.

For now, Merrill said he is thankful to be able to walk through the front doors of the Backus Community Center and it would have been a “real loss” to the community had the building been torn down. He mentioned how the absence of the downtown cinemas, The Grand and The Border, as well as The Rex Hotel, have left “holes in the community.”

“(Koochiching County Commissioner) Wade Pavleck once said, ‘Successful communities always preserve their historic buildings,’” Merrill concluded. “I truly believe that. The (Backus and AB) buildings will be here for generations to come.”