PETERSBURG, Va. — A multi-million-dollar project to transform a shuttered school in hopes of transforming a Petersburg neighborhood is back on track.
Sparks were flying Friday as work continued inside Virginia Avenue School after a fire and financial problems derailed plans for the project, which were first announced in June 2021.
A lot has changed inside the former school since crews first began the demolition process.
“You couldn’t walk straight down through it before,” Randy McElroy with Davis Brothers Construction Company explained. “We spent two and a half weeks just getting rid of all the junk that was left behind, desks, chairs, kitchen equipment.”
Everything left behind by Petersburg Public Schools from when the facility was shuttered in 2001 ended up in dumpsters.
“Before it was so full of trash and so dark you couldn’t really tell a whole lot of what was going on in here,” McElroy said.
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