GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Demolition is under way at Gettysburg National Military Park on a building situated at the centre of what were once the Union Army's battle lines.

Work to tear down the Cyclorama Building began a month ago with asbestos removal and is expected to last until late April, park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said Monday.

The removal is part of the National Park Service's longstanding efforts to restore the park to conditions more closely mimicking 1863, when the property was engulfed by a pivotal battle in the American Civil War.

"Anyone who studies the Battle of Gettysburg learns about the Union fishhook, and it's the shape that the battle lines of the Union Army took," Lawhon said. "This building was right in the middle of the fishhook, and it blocked people's ability to kind of connect the dots."

The nearly $600,000 cost of the repairs is being paid by the Gettysburg Foundation.

The Cyclorama Building opened in 1962 as the park's headquarters and visitor's centre, though the visitor's centre later moved to another building which has also been torn down.

The building, designed by architect Richard Neutra, housed a 377-foot circular painting of Pickett's Charge by Paul Philippoteaux. The painting was restored and moved to a new visitor's centre in 2008.

A legal battle over the fate of the building led to a court-ordered analysis of the structure and alternatives to demolition. In January, the Park Service announced the results of that study had cleared the way for a decision to tear it down.

A 1999 Park Service report called for restoring more of the battlefield to 19th-century appearances. That has included removal of structures such as a large observation tower and work on fields and fences.

Eventually, the park plans to remove a parking lot from the area by the visitor's centre that was torn down in 2009 and reduce the size of the lot by the Cyclorama Building.

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Demolition begins at Gettysburg Cyclorama Building, site of Union Army's battle lines

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) Demolition is under way at Gettysburg National Military Park on a building situated at the center of what were once the Union Army's battle lines.

Work to tear down the Cyclorama Building began a month ago with asbestos removal and is expected to last until late April, park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said Monday.

The removal is part of the National Park Service's longstanding efforts to restore the park to conditions more closely mimicking 1863, when the property was engulfed by a pivotal battle in the American Civil War.

"Anyone who studies the Battle of Gettysburg learns about the Union fishhook, and it's the shape that the battle lines of the Union Army took," Lawhon said. "This building was right in the middle of the fishhook, and it blocked people's ability to kind of connect the dots."

The nearly $600,000 cost of the repairs is being paid by the Gettysburg Foundation.

The Cyclorama Building opened in 1962 as the park's headquarters and visitor's center, though the visitor's center later moved to another building which has also been torn down.

The building, designed by architect Richard Neutra, housed a 377-foot circular painting of Pickett's Charge by Paul Philippoteaux. The painting was restored and moved to a new visitor's center in 2008.

A legal battle over the fate of the building led to a court-ordered analysis of the structure and alternatives to demolition. In January, the Park Service announced the results of that study had cleared the way for a decision to tear it down.

A 1999 Park Service report called for restoring more of the battlefield to 19th-century appearances. That has included removal of structures such as a large observation tower and work on fields and fences.

Eventually, the park plans to remove a parking lot from the area by the visitor's center that was torn down in 2009 and reduce the size of the lot by the Cyclorama Building.

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Demolition begins at Gettysburg Cyclorama Building

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SIMS 3 HOUSE DEMOLITION! #sims3 - Video

The mood was festive as more than 50 people stood outside the old Cyclorama building on Saturday morning to watch a part of the major demolition of the circular building, taking photographs and recording videos of the gray building falling to the ground.

The crowd held cameras and cellphones to document the moment as workers destroyed about a third of the building. They said the demolition will continue Monday morning and is expected to take the entire month to complete.

Mary Luquette was one of the many snapping pictures with her cellphone, planning to send the pictures to her brother in Maryland. He would be jealous he missed the demolition, she said with a laugh.

For the Gettysburg resident, the building is a part of the town's history. But Luquette was also excited to see it fall.

"It's cool to watch a building being torn down - that's part of the thrill," Luquette said.

The building, which overlooks the ground where Pickett's Charge reached the Union line, was built in 1962, as part of the national Mission 66 initiative that opened visitor centers in parks across the country in recognition of the Park Service's 50th birthday. The building housed the painting depicting Pickett's Charge until 2008, when the painting was moved to the new visitor center and the Cyclorama's doors were closed.

But the Park Service has planned to demolish the building since 1999. Legal issues set the demolition planning back over the last several years, but now the Park Service hopes to have the demolition completed by the 150th anniversary celebration.

The Saturday morning demolition of the Cyclorama was a day Barbara Finfrock sometimes thought would never come. The Gettysburg resident, along with her friend Jerry Coates, has been fighting to tear down the Cyclorama for almost 20 years.

Without the building, the battlefield will go back to the way it should be - the way it looked when the soldiers fought and died, Coates, of Littlestown, said.

"It's an exciting and historic day," Coates said.

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Mood mostly festive at Gettysburg Cyclorama demolition

The demolition of the Insights El Paso Science Center began Monday. (Ruben R. Ramirez / El Paso Times)

Photos: Insights El Paso Science Center demolition

Just after lunchtime on Monday, a backhoe began tearing into the Insights El Paso Science Center, paving the way for a $50 million Downtown ballpark.

At about 1:30 p.m., the first wall of the 22,000-square-foot museum on Santa Fe Street was knocked down, sending debris to the ground and dust skyward.

Once the wall was knocked down the backhoe began to gut out metal framework for scrap.

"It's not going to take them very long to tear the building down," said City

There were only about 10 spectators with their cellphones out. A couple dozen more watched later as the backhoe continued to hollow out the building, but most of them were city employees returning to the old City Hall building, which will soon be demolished, too.

"I was curious to see them take down the building," said Omar Farfan, a resident. "I was excited to watch. I just wanted to see how they do it."

Another spectator was Cesar Lopez, who works for FALC Enterprises, a local trucking company.

Lopez said he hopes his company is one of those that will be subcontracted to carry away

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Demolition of Insights El Paso Science Museum begins

There has been no ice in the old Central Illinois Public Service Co. icehouse in Springfield for more than a decade.

Now, the more-than-100-year-old structure, last used as a paintball court, is coming down.

We want to get this cleaned up, owner Joe Chernis said Monday. Were looking across the street and we have the Lincoln (Home) National Historic Site. Theres just so much that could be done with that area.

Chernis, who was the only bidder on the property at 918 E. Edwards St. at a 2009 bank auction, said he concluded the site would be more attractive to potential developers minus the aging icehouse.

The property is actually four buildings on 1.2 acres. It was built in about 1909, according to newspaper archives. CIPS privatized its ice sales in 1940, the archives showed, and the building was owned by a series of ice companies through the decades.

A paintball business operated in part of the building for a time after the last company, Polar Ice, moved out in 2000.

Route 66 tie-in?

Midwest Demolition, operated by Chernis and his son, Joey, should have the site cleared in a couple of weeks, Joe Chernis said Monday.

He said there is little salvage value in the property, adding that there has been more interest in the site than in the building the past couple of years.

Chernis said he has had discussions with city and tourism officials about possible uses for the property, including the on-and-off idea of a Route 66 visitor center and museum. Ninth Street is among the routes followed by the historic route through Springfield.

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Demolition begins on former icehouse

More then 400 homes deemed public nuisances by Canton City Council Monday may be torn down this summer, as the city spends $2 million on a massive demolition program.

Council unanimously approved on first reading the demolition list, which has been built over several months by the Canton Building Department, and gave permission to the administration to enter into contract with one or more wrecking company to complete the tear-down work.

It was yet another step taken by the city to move the program forward. The city received $1 million from the Moving Ohio Forward Grant fund, which requires it to contribute a match of an additional $1 million.

Property owners can appeal the decision and/or clean up their properties to bring them up to code. The number of structures the city tears down depends on the bids submitted by local contractors. Chief Building Official Angela Cavanaugh recently said that the average cost for demolition is $8,000, which means the city would be able to demolish 250 blighted structures.

Councilman Frank Morris, D-9, asked if all of the properties on the list would be torn down as part of the program, noting that it included a few commercial properties. The program is geared at residential properties only.

Law Director Joe Martuccio described it as part of another in a continuation of buildings already declared nuisances.

This ordinance was written to be the ordinance of the first 200 buildings to come down, Martuccio said.

Councilman Edmond Mack, D-8, said that while it was not the end-all, be-all list, it is indicative of the Herculean task it took to move the demolition program forward. Mack said Cavanaugh and her staff deserve recognition for their efforts

In other business, council extended the Downtown Canton Special Improvement District (SID) for another four years, from Jan. 1, 2014 through Dec. 31, 2017. Its the fifth time the city has renewed the SID, which is a non-profit agency that uses revenue on special assessments of downtown businesses for marketing, economic development and to improve aesthetics.

Among SIDs projects is an update to the 2003 downtown master plan, which is due out this spring. In 2012, the district added 2,100 feet of new street-scape sidewalks.

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Canton declares 400 homes blighted, adds them to demolition list

By Gal Tziperman Lotan, Globe Correspondent

Demolition of another Plum Island home damaged in Fridays storm has been put off until Monday morning because the area is littered with debris, said Newbury building inspector Sam Joslin.

The house, at 37 Annapolis Way, did not collapse completely but was deemed uninhabitable after high tides snapped at least one of its support beams and ate away at its concrete foundation Friday. The home was assessed at $836,500. It had been scheduled for demolition between high tides today.

Crews plan to clean the area today while the contractor scheduled to take the house down works on supporting other houses in the area, Joslin said.

There really just arent going to be enough hours in the day today, he said.

Engineers also plan to inspect three houses on Fordham Way, numbers 34, 36, and 38. Joslin said the houses will probably have to be demolished as well, but homeowners could install temporary support beams so they can remove their belongings.

It could be a month before the houses are demolished, he said. Weve just got to take it step by step.

Two houses were demolished Saturday after they toppled off their foundations: a nearly $700,000 home at 31 Annapolis Way and an $800,900 home at 41 Annapolis Way.

The other six houses Joslin was concerned about as tides began rising Friday are temporarily uninhabitable, but can probably be repaired, he said.

Though they may have suffered over the last few tides a little bit more, I dont think the structures have suffered to the point of collapse, Joslin said.

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Demolition of storm-damaged house on Plum Island put off because of debris

As preparations begin for the city's new Triple-A baseball stadium, demolition began for El Paso's beloved science museum.

The Insights El Paso Science Center closed its Santa Fe Street location Dec. 15, and the first wall came down Monday afternoon.

About a dozen spectators gathered to get their final glimpses of the museum. Joe Borunda said that it was a shame to be standing there to watch history come down.

"It's a beautiful building. Why tear it down?" Borunda said. "It's calledprogress,but progress costs money, and the taxpayers have to pay for that."

In the museum's place will be fresh turf and aspiringminor-leaguebaseball players. The land on which the museum stood will become the outfield area of the baseball stadium.

City engineer Alan Shubert previously told KFOX14 News that the demolition will be a fairly standard tear-down operation that could take a few days.

The contract for demolition was $1.5 million, split between the museum and City Hall, but Shubert expects it to possibly come in under budget.

Borunda feels that taxpayers are the ones footing the bill for something they didn't have control over.

"Now they're spending millions of dollars to tear them down, and then they're going to spend millions of dollars to put the stadium up. And who's paying for all that? The taxpayers," Borunda said. "If the city wants to do something, they're going to do it no matter what you say."

Any metal in the building will be recycled. The subcontractor for thedemolitionis Grant MacKay Demolition Co. of Houston, which won the contract with the lowest bid.

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Demolition begins for iconic science museum

WATERVLIET A grass-roots group went to court again Monday to attempt to stop the demolition of St. Patrick's Church as crews began tearing apart walls along the church stairs.

Citizens for St. Patrick's filed a lawsuit against the city of Watervliet to force the Zoning Board of Appeals to hear an appeal seeking to overturn the demolition permits given Nigro Companies to knock down the historic church.

Rosemary Nichols, a former city official and an attorney for Citizens for St. Patrick's, said the group would seek an order Tuesday to stop any further demolition before the lawsuit can be heard.

The case is assigned to Acting State Supreme Court Justice Kimberly A. O'Connor. Last week, O'Connor rejected motions to halt demolition work while another case challenging the rezoning of the church property was pending.

City attorneys reviewed the group's appeal to the ZBA over the weekend before determining that there was no legal reason for the zoning board to hear the matter.

"I have advised the building inspector that the ZBA does not have jurisdiction under the city code to hear an appeal of the issuance of the demolition permits," the city's special counsel, Paul Goldman, said in a letter sent over the weekend to the citizens organization.

"They don't have a stay. We're going ahead," said John Nigro, president of Nigro Companies, before the citizens group returned to court.

The citizens group is seeking to halt the razing of the church, rectory and school. The buildings must be cleared away in order to build a 40,200-square-foot Price Chopper supermarket and two smaller commercial buildings on the 3.5-acre site on 19th Street.

Dan's Hauling and Demo is preparing to raze the buildings for the developer.

Asbestos removal must be completed and the underground conduits carrying creeks through the site marked and protected from damage during demolition.

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St. Patrick's demolition fight heats up