Fire destroys The Castle, a once-proud school turned asbestos hazard

On August 3, a 4 alarm fire raged at the former Julia de Burgos Middle School/ Edison High School/ Northeast Manual Training School at 8th & Lehigh in North Philadelphia. (Photo: David Maialetti for The Philadelphia Inquirer)

August 3rd, 2011 was a sad day for Northeast, Edison and  de Burgos grads, as well as for lovers of architecture, but perhaps a good day for the children of Fairhill, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Philly.


This past Wednesday, the Castle (as the old Gothic structure was known) went up in a four-alarm blaze. It had been unoccupied since 2002, when the Julia de Burgos Magnet Middle School closed. The beautiful building, long fallen into disrepair, was little more than an asbestos hazard and scrappers' free-for-all at the time of its incineration, though plans for demolition and rebirth as a shopping center were (and still are, as far as I know) in the works.


In the nine years since the building's last occupant--a magnet school named for the famous Puerto Rican poet-- has been closed, 701 Lehigh Avenue has been a magnet for vandals, drug sales, metal scrappers, and other illegal activity.


Much like the abandoned Roberto Clemente Middle School I wrote about in July, the Castle posed a danger to the community, in that it was easy to access, and full of dangers like broken glass and friable asbestos.


Philly News' Stephanie Farr gave a brief summary of the 109-year-old school's varied history:

The school, which has sat vacant since 2002, began as the boys-only Northeast Manual Training High School in 1903. It then became Northeast High School, until a new Northeast High was opened in 1957.

The building then housed Thomas Edison High School, which lost 66 of its former students in the Vietnam War - more than any other public high school in the country.

Edison High was eventually moved as well and the building became home to the Julia DeBurgos Bilingual Middle School in 1988. In 2002, that school closed. 

701 Lehigh, before the fire. (photo: Annie Bydlon for NewsWorks)

WHYY's Mara Zepeda interviewed the site's developer Scott Oren standing "amid broken glass, rusty nails, asbestos, and shattered beams." These are the sort of dangers the developer, authorities, and the community would love to keep children safe from, but with insufficient funds to guard or seal the large property, have not been able to do.

 Any Northeast, Edison or de Burgos grads in the peanut gallery care to comment? Sad or glad to see the Castle go? I'm torn, frankly--it was a beautiful school, but you can see what had become of it. Asbestos in the schools is an issue whether or not the school is open, because, as the articles I've linked to attest, kids still find a way in, even after the school's shut down.