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Building an Earth Day lesson out of buildings

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8 relatives shot in head in Ohio; killer thought to be on the loose

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Cups, plates and flatware by the score; curtains, seats and auditorium doors; marble off the hall walls, books from the library and rows of those round metal waste baskets; shop tools if you can figure out how to maneuver them up from the basement, and lab tables if you can get them down from the fourth floor &#8212; it&#8217;s all for sale to the highest bidder.</p><p>And on the way down those steps, if you decide you want the ornate railing, well, make an offer.</p><p>For the first time in months, the original section of Coughlin High School &#8212; more than a century old and fated for demolition &#8212; reopened the front doors Friday so would-be buyers, and a few reminiscing alumni, could tour the place one last time.</p><p>J&amp;J Auction Service of Sheppton will begin the bidding at 9 a.m., working from the basement to the top floor, then back to a particularly dingy, dark and cluttered subterranean chamber under the stage.</p><p>&#8220;I want to do it last because I don&#8217;t want too many people going down there at one time,&#8221; Joe Kurczewski of J&amp;J admitted.</p><p>Speaking of the stage, yes, you can buy the curtains, and the pulley systems, and the counter balance gizmos mounted on the walls.</p><p>If you want to stay the whole day, you&#8217;re welcome, Kurczewski said with a smile. But the plan is to do the initial basement tour until about noon, the first floor from then until 2 p.m., the second and third floors from 2 to 3:30, and the fourth floor &#8212; with a rather stunning array of science equipment that seems to date back to antiquity &#8212; until 5 p.m.</p><p>Then it&#8217;s down to the deep recess of the basement, where boxes of unused air filters await along with a few old auditorium chairs and an apparent ping-pong table in a pit worthy of Edgar Allen Poe, save for that hand-painted sign saying &#8220;Beauregarde&#8217;s.&#8221;</p><p>On a black duct work above the pit, people wrote names and dates likely seen more often by mice than men: &#8220;Vera &#8216;11,&#8221; &#8220;Mitchell 06,&#8221; &#8220;McManus &#8216;16&#8221; and &#8220;Cheech &#8216;14&#8221; to name a few (sorry, &#8220;Up in Smoke&#8221; fans, no &#8220;Chong&#8221; was in view).</p><p>Footsteps echoed down the halls along with whispers of &#8220;It&#8217;s such a shame&#8221; and &#8220;So many memories.&#8221; Based on input from four firms, the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board determined the building is too far gone to repair, and the culprit is decades of deferred maintenance.</p><p>The end nears even as the board continues to reconsider plans &#8212; a special meeting is set for Monday for an expected vote on consolidating all three high schools instead of just two initially approved last summer. A similar motion was rejected at the regular monthly meeting April 11.</p><p>Kurczewski said all items bought at the auction must be taken away no later than Friday, April 29, because asbestos abatement is set to begin that weekend.</p><p>So stop by to say farewell and maybe pick up a deal (yes, you can buy individual items as well as whole lots). Odds are the vacuum tube tester will sell for a song, but the giant slide rule could start a bidding war among aging math geeks.</p><p>There are Vivitar film cameras and several old-school enlargers photo buffs can buy to show their digital grand kids, and some sort of electricity gizmo patented June 10, 1902.</p><p>One of the little hand-powered generators lit the connected bulb, another did not.</p><p>Along with the expected test tubes, beakers and pipettes, if you look carefully you&#8217;ll find an animal skull, a Teddy bear and a VHS tape intriguingly hand-labeled &#8220;Explosives.&#8221;</p><p>On a shelf in a back room of one former lab sat a half-empty bottle of Mrs. Butterworth&#8217;s syrup and a small shaker of McCormick&#8217;s mustard seed. Draw your own conclusions.</p><p>In the hallway, easy to overlook, there was a dusty and very weighty thing looking suspiciously like an ancient dutch oven until you lift the lid and realize it&#8217;s a hand-cranked centrifuge.</p><p>Four massive wooden doors rest on their sides up the stairs. Kurczewski said he found them in the attic, and that they were apparently a second set of rolling doors visitors would encounter in the lobby.</p><p>And while the artificial Christmas tree in the corner of a former office may hint at the sad selection made by Charlie Brown, there is no doubt of the reference in an upstairs hall. A booth with a sign above reading &#8220;Psychiatric help 5&#162;.&#8221; The sign below?</p><p>&#8220;The doctor is IN.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_CoughlinAuctionPreview_1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Joe Kurczewski of J&amp;J Auction Service in Sheppton looks over old globes at Coughlin High School in Wilkes-Barre on Friday afternoon. Remaining contents in the building are up for bid Saturday </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_CoughlinAuctionPreview_1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Joe Kurczewski of J&amp;J Auction Service in Sheppton looks over old globes at Coughlin High School in Wilkes-Barre on Friday afternoon. Remaining contents in the building are up for bid Saturday </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_CoughlinAuctionPreview_2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Joe Strenkoski of Taylor checks out a bicycle wheel rigged to act as a gyroscope on Friday, amid many items for sale in the science labs at Coughlin High School. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_CoughlinAuctionPreview_2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Joe Strenkoski of Taylor checks out a bicycle wheel rigged to act as a gyroscope on Friday, amid many items for sale in the science labs at Coughlin High School. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_CoughlinAuctionPreview_3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Microphones and other sound equipment wait to be auctioned at the Coughlin High School auditorium as Wilkes-Barre Area School District Business Manager Leonard Przywara looks over preparations Friday afternoon. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_CoughlinAuctionPreview_3.jpg</photo2><caption2>Microphones and other sound equipment wait to be auctioned at the Coughlin High School auditorium as Wilkes-Barre Area School District Business Manager Leonard Przywara looks over preparations Friday afternoon. </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_CoughlinAuctionPreview_4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The Coughlin High School wooden entrance doors are among the items to be auctioned.  Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_CoughlinAuctionPreview_4.jpg</photo3><caption3>The Coughlin High School wooden entrance doors are among the items to be auctioned.  Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</caption3><photoCredit3></photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Last of Coughlin High School on the auction block