Start of demolition ends era for old Caribou Middle School

CARIBOU, Maine — Soderberg Construction began demolition of the Caribou Middle School on July 13 as part of the Caribou Community School construction project.

Originally built in 1926, the middle school is close to a century old.

The new school will house PreK-8 students, replacing Hilltop Elementary School, Teague Park Elementary School and Caribou Middle School. The school will be located on Bennett Drive, between where Caribou Middle School and Teague Park Elementary School currently stand.

In addition to these two buildings, the Caribou Learning Center and former Sincock Administrative Building on Main Street were demolished last year. The Sincock site was repurposed into a city dog park, and classes formerly taught at the learning center were relocated to the Caribou High School campus on Sweden Street. 

Hilltop Elementary School is being repurposed as a senior living facility. 

County Abatement recently finished removing hazardous materials from the middle school, and now roughly 10 to 12 workers are in the process of tearing down the building. 

The demolition itself is scheduled to occur over the course of about two months. Once torn down, contractors will install a new parking lot, sidewalks, site lighting and storm water quality filters. The Tech Ed building, which is part of the middle school site, will remain standing and be repurposed as a maintenance building for the new school.

Demolition of Teague Park Elementary School is scheduled for later this year, but project officials say it is too early to identify a specific date. Teague Park Elementary School and Caribou Middle school will be the last of the demolition projects associated with the Caribou Community School project.

Caribou Community School project Clerk of the Works Gregg Bouchard of CHA Architects said that bricks will be placed in a pile at a yet-to-be-determined location for members of the community who would like a souvenir from the building.