SAN ANTONIO – St. Paul Lutheran School is at the center of a debate regarding its potential demolition after being open for over nine decades and closing in Jan. 2024.
Brian Biediger, a member of the St. Paul Lutheran Church, said the school, 201 Roseborough Street, had to close because of its condition.
“We had to close out in January when the engineers came in,” Biediger said. “They told us this isn’t safe. It’s at risk of collapse, and that’s why we had to get out of the building and take everything out. We’ve got the risk of collapse. We’ve got the asbestos. We’ve got the mold.”
While the building is not holding up well, it stood for more than 90 years. The school was built in 1928 and opened in 1929.
One neighbor of the church told KSAT that they used to run Meals on Wheels out of the school. It’s a place where many San Antonians were raised, went to school, church and volunteered.
“I grew up here. Sunday school here in this building. My mom was baptized in this building in the church with me. That was in the late 1940s,” Biediger said, remembering.
To avoid having the school sit vacant, the church plans to demolish and rebuild it. However, The Conservation Society of San Antonio wants the building preserved.
Preservation can only come with community support. The Conservation Society is using social media to ask community members who want the building preserved to reach out to the Office of Historic Preservation, which oversees preserving buildings and can step in to prevent demolitions.
There isn’t currently a timeline for when the building will be demolished if it comes to that point. However, St. Paul Luther Church’s lead pastor said they still plan to use the area to further its mission.
Pastor Dave Murillo sent KSAT this statement:
“Our plan is not/has never been to sell the land but instead to continue to serve our community with a new church owned and operated building that would house our thrift store ministry.”
Losing the original building is far from the biggest price tag. Biediger said it would take millions to accommodate renovations and reopen safely versus demolishing the building.
The next step in this debate is to wait and see if the conservation society gets enough community support to postpone or stop the demolition by Aug. 30.