FLINT, MI -- Nearly a century ago, the Homedale Elementary School grounds were touted as the finest in the city.

Today, a vacant grass-covered lot on Davison Road and Olive Avenue serves as a reminder of the toll arson has taken on the city.

The school was demolished in November 2010, just weeks after it was heavily damaged by two fires set two months apart that year.

More than just a building, the school was a focal point of the predominately blue-collar neighborhood that, despite having its problems, took pride in its school.

"It was a community icon," said Kevin Watkins, who started school there in 1969 when he and his mother lived on Mable and Minnesota on the city's east side.

Homedale school was constructed in 1913. The 16-room school cost roughly $70,000, or the current equivalent of more than $1.6 million, to build and was state-of-the art for its time with features like speaking tubes, sanitary water fountains and a fan system controlled by thermostats.

The school was opened to students in 1914. There were 17 teachers initially hired and Elizabeth Coates was the school's first principal.

Homedale went through multiple expansions, including one in 1922 and 1966 to keep up with the city's booming population, according to MLive-Flint Journal archives.

The 1966 expansion cost $504,397, which would have a current value of more than $3.5 million. The renovations included a gymnasium, community room, three kindergarten rooms and the creation of additional parking spaces.

"We basically went to school all year," said Watkins, noting how the school day gave way to Cub Scout meetings at night and the school year yielded to camp come summer.

The school served the community in many capacities during its life.

Homedale opened the city's first nursery care center for the children of female World War II workers in 1943 and was home to the district's first bilingual preschool program in 1989.

Watkins, whose family left Flint for Arkansas just after his time at Homedale, still keeps in touch with other school alumni to reminisce about their childhood on the east side.

"It was a big part of my life," said Watkins. "It's a big part of what Flint is to me."

The school once served as a tribute to the days when Flint was booming, struggling to build schools fast enough for its growing population.

The school's demise now illustrates the downfall of a Midwest manufacturing town -- its shrinking population, seemingly endless supply of vacant buildings and nation's worst arson rate.

Flint school board members voted to close the district's oldest school in 2003 due to budget cuts -- even though the school produced some of the district's highest test scores just seven years prior.

After the school was shuttered it became a target for arsonists and vandals.

The school fell victim to at least two fires in 2010, including a September 2010 blaze that heavily damaged the building. Demolition began on the school by the end of the year.

Christopher William Holmes was charged in 2011 with two counts of arson of real property for the two fires at the school.



Flint Fire Lt. Greg Dubay testified during a preliminary exam for Holmes that he arrived at the scene of the Sept. 11, 2010, fire shortly before midnight and found light smoke around the building.

More equipment was called in to help fight the fire and firefighters cut a chain lock on one of the doors and entered the school, Dubay said.

The lieutenant said firefighters encountered heavy smoke inside the building but eventually found a small fire in a stairwell area. Dubay said the fire was burning old papers and books that were left behind when the school building closed.

Firefighters extinguished the fire in the stairwell but soon found another fire in the back corner of a classroom, which was also burning books and other debris, according to Dubay's testimony.

The fire in the classroom was extinguished when the fire battalion chief radioed that fire was showing through the roof on the south side of the building.

Dubay said firefighters backed out of the building to reassess the situation. Ceiling tiles began to fall, exposing heavy fire as the firefighters left the building.

"We had to back out," Dubay testified. "I didn't want to put anybody's life at risk."

Firefighters were forced to fall back into a defensive mode because there was too much fire and not enough manpower, water or equipment despite calling for mutual aid.

A female roommate and a jail-house informant both testified that Holmes admitted to starting the fire.

The woman said that Holmes had tried to set it on fire previously.

"He just said he's tried; he's been in there, that he's tried to start it on fire," she testified. "It just never had stuck."

She said that Holmes never said why he tried to set the building on fire.

The jailhouse informant testified that the fire was extensively planned and that the fire that eventually destroyed the building was set in an electrical box in the basement of the school.

The charges against Holmes were dismissed as part of a plea agreement in another arson case out of Montrose Township, according to court records. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Many of the neighborhoods around the former school have also been hit hard by fires, with some blocks only having a handful of buildings remaining.

Nearby Jane, Dakota, Franklin, Maplewood and Colorado avenues, as well as Davison Road and Leith Street, have been the hardest hit by the more than 1,600 fires at vacant structures in the city since the beginning of 2010, according to fire department records.

"The town has changed drastically," said Watkins.

Gary Ridley can be reached at 810-280-9516. You can also follow him on Twitter @GaryRidley or on Facebook.