Steele House leveling to begin this week; I Lot closed until finish

Demolition on Steele House, located across South Main Street from the Quad, will begin this week.

After more than 25 years of use, Steele House will be torn down to clear land for the new Fine and Performing Arts Center.

The clearing project is expected to be complete Oct. 1 and will include tenting the house for the removal of asbestos.

The demolition has forced the closure of I Lot to accommodate project crews.

Concerns have risen over the recent discovery of asbestos in the house. Professor of sociology and anthropology Carole Nash said structures of that time period were built using slats in the walls, and then covered with an inner and outer coating of plaster. The inner coating of plaster had asbestos mixed into it.

Nash said that no one in the laboratory ever was concerned by the asbestos, nor felt unsafe. Its presence, however, will cause precautionary measures to be taken — tenting and air-filtering — for its removal before the demolition can take place.

According to Nash, Steele House has been used as a working archeological laboratory for more than 25 years.

Only within the past eight weeks has the department vacated the house for its new location at the Studio Center on Grace Street.