The Story
From a Facebook comment to a fight for the building
Kim Evans bought her childhood school in Chandler to keep it from demolition. What followed is a community story about memory, stone, and second chances.
During the Great Depression, people in Chandler cut limestone from a Sac and Fox Nation quarry and built something meant to outlast them. Memorial High School still stands on Route 66, barely, with original character, student names, and decades of Lion pride locked inside.
When the district consolidated and moved on, the Memorial Building was left behind. Windows broke. Water found its way in. Boards went up. After Chandler lost the St. Cloud Hotel, the fear of demolition became real.
Kim stepped in. Ownership bought time. Alumni kept showing up. UCO students Tina and Becky brought planning energy through a MAD project with the City. And a free roof inspection revealed steel beams and renewed momentum.
Why this building matters
It is the largest WPA-built school in Lincoln County: native stone with Moderne influence, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Inside: terra cotta tile, signatures from the Class of 1947, jackets, trophies, and the kind of everyday history that disappears forever when a building falls.
Friends of Chandler HS exists to make sure that does not happen here.