Two schools in West Orange, including Carl Godwin Auditorium, along with a commercial lot on 15th Street in Orange will be up for auction in February.
The West Orange-Cove CISD is preparing to sell its vacant buildings and land. The buildings are the original West Orange High School, which was later a middle school. Also to be sold are Lorena Oates Elementary School and the former administration building.
The school board late last year declared the properties as surplus. Lorraine Shannon, district spokeswoman, said the district is having professional property surveys conducted before advertising for the bids.
The auction properties will be 17.2 acres on Western Avenue in West Orange. The buildings were the first West Orange High School in the 1950s. The complex has had additions through the years and served as different schools through the years. Most recently, it was used as the district’s Central Service Center.
Shannon said the sale will include Carl Godwin Auditorium, which is attached to the school. The auditorium was renovated after a 2007 bond election. However, the property auction will not include the district’s Transportation Department at the corner of Western and Dayton avenues.
Lorena Oates Elementary School is on Newton Street in West Orange and was built about 1960. The campus is 9.1 acres. Classes moved from the site in 2010 when the new West Orange-Stark Elementary School opened in Pinehurst.
The old administration building was also constructed about 1960 for what was then the Orange Independent School District in the 500 block of 15th Street. The property is about one acre and includes a parking lot. The land’s back boundary is part of a vacant lot on 16th Street between Wells Fargo Bank and the Stark Foundation’s greenhouses for Shangri La gardens.
The district remodeled the former Anderson Elementary School, 902 W. Park Avenue, for administrative offices and the service center. The departments moved to the site two years ago, leaving the old administration building vacant.
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