One hundred and seven years of history was on display at the former Durango School District 9-R Administration building on Saturday.

The city of Durango’s purchase of the historic building, 201 East 12th St., from the Durango Fire Protection District and the relocation of the school district’s administrative offices to Bodo Park prompted the school district to rummage through thousands of items left behind around the building.

Placed around the board room for people to riffle through were old architectural drawings of the building, sports trophies, yearbooks, student certificates of proficiency in “Rapid Legible Business Writing” and a large framed photograph of Emory E. Smiley, the district’s superintendent between 1906 and 1943, who holds a rather stern look upon his face.

Modern office furniture was available for purchase at the event, which doubled as a moving sale.

The school district is selling off furniture and trying to reconnect some items, such as a 1960s letterman’s jacket, with their former owners. Some items will be donated to the Animas Museum and others will be put on display behind exhibition glass at the school district’s new office.

9-R spokeswoman Karla Sluis said it’s difficult to decide what to hold on to and what to part with.

“When the city comes on board, we hope that they preserve as much as possible, you know, like some of the beautiful history in this building. But they also have to make it a working space. There's going to be that fine line, and there's a lot of work that's going to need to be done,” she said.

Kay Thrash, who graduated from Durango High School in 1974, said looking through the old yearbooks and other items spurred a resurgence of old memories. Not only did she and her five siblings attend school in the old building, but her parents did as well.

She said she remembers back-to-back classes on the third floors of two separate buildings, rushing down and up flights of stairs to get to class on time.

“The city’s bit off a big chunk there to deal with asbestos and getting it usable,” Gary Thrash, Kay’s husband, said.

Sluis said she visited with a former coach who worked for the school district and stopped by to check out the items on sale.

“It's interesting that women were valued in sports as early as the 1930s,” she said, reflecting on her conversation with the coach.

The boardroom used to be a theater and the upper gallery theater seats are still present, although the district will remove and sell them, Sluis said.

One woman went up to inspect the seats. She found graffiti and recognized the name of a former classmate and told Sluis “he was a troublemaker,” Sluis said.

The moving sale was held to help the school district offload the mass of items, but it also lets staff say their goodbyes to the former administration building.

“This is more than a district building, and it's more than a city building or fire district building,” she said, referring to several property exchanges the building has gone through with the school district, Durango Fire Protection District and the city.

“It's a community building, and hearing people share their memories in here has been really exciting,” she said.

Sluis said she had good conversations with people about a potential ballot measure for this November and a survey that will open to residents on Thursday.

Some might not be interested in purchasing bonds because they don’t have kids or are otherwise disconnected from the school district. But they should take more interest in the up-and-coming generation’s education, Sluis said.

The businesses of today will rely on the young new workers of tomorrow.

“Karen Cheser, our superintendent, is trying really hard to have a workforce pipeline and make sure that the kids who are going to school here know that they're welcomed into the community and into these jobs,” she said. “And so that's … why we feel like everybody has a stake in education.”

She said it might sound cheesy, but it really does take a village to raise a child.

cburney@durangoherald.com

An earlier version of this story misinterpreted what Durango School District 9-R spokeswoman Karla Sluis was referencing about a potential November ballot measure in conversations with residents on Saturday.