By Deborah Guziak
Record-Courier staff writer
SUFFIELD -- The scoop of the bulldozer grabbed the northeast corner of Suffield Elementary School Monday morning, and within seconds, the corner of the building became a pile of rubble.
Demolition of the 1922 building started shortly before 8 a.m. A crowd of about 50 people gathered to watch. The Suffield Fire Department, which had used the empty building for training purposes, stood by with water, occasionally dousing the building to control the dust.
At one point, Shawn Bookman, the building's principal, took over the controls of the massive bulldozer and tore a small portion of the building away from the structure. She then tossed bricks from the pile of rubble to an area next to a fence that separated the demolition site from the spectators.
"Get me a brick, too, Shawn!" people called from beyond the fence.
The dozer peeled away walls, floors and the roof, exposing white and blue painted walls, dry erase boards and the original exterior of the building that had been covered by additions. Electrical conduit still was attached to the classroom walls. As the roof came down, one could see it had been made of wood with tar paper and other materials on top of it.
The sound of glass shattering and the falling of the bricks filled the air.
"Look! There's the gym door," a boy shouted, pointed to a massive gaping hole in the building.
Fire Chief Bob Rasnick, stood by, waiting to hose the dust. A 1977 graduate of Field High School, he attended the elementary school.
"See that window?" he asked, pointing toward the top of the building. "That was my fifth-grade classroom."
The gymnasium is expected to be the last thing torn down becaus its peak is taller than the bulldozer can reach. Workers are hitting the building so the rubble falls to the inside of it. Once the building, except for the gym, is down, the bulldozer will crawl on top of the rubble to reach the peak of the gym.
Once the rubble is cleared, a parking lot will be put in for the new elementary school. The school is located behind the original building and will open in the fall.