Malan Junior High swept away

Very few people - if any - around Harrisburg these days were eyewitnesses to what this land looked like before Harrisburg built a junior high here about 100 years ago, but now everybody can get the idea.

A monthslong effort to tear down what most of us knew as Malan Junior High is coming to an end and the wide-open spaces are a little jarring to those of us used to the skyline.

The school was built as Harrisburg Junior High, but in 1966 was renamed for Russell Malan, who at the time was retiring after 30 years as superintendent of the old Harrisburg Public School District 43.

The school had been open for nearly 80 years when it was replaced in 2003 by the new Harrisburg Middle School.