Miss-Delectable
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DesMoinesRegister.com
Students and faculty at the Iowa School of the Deaf in Council Bluffs were stunned Monday to learn that more than 300 pounds of copper had been stripped off the school’s landmark cupola.
“We’re still trying to get over the shock of it,” said Cindy Angeroth, outreach coordinator for the school. The cupola is “something that people here have many treasured memories of.”
Now 104-years old, the cupola used to sit on top of Primary Hall, a building on campus that was demolished in 2002. The “beautiful betina” cupola was saved, Angeroth said, as it was going to be used for a memorial park.
The cupola, which stands 10 feet tall, was sitting on the ground at the time of the burglary. In all, it weighs 7,800 pounds. The copper’s total weight was 314 pounds.
Angeroth said she did not know who would want to do it, but “I would tell them, ‘You’ve destroyed something that so many people held sacred.”
One of those people is Dan Hill, 79, of West Des Moines.
Hill, who graduated from the School of the Deaf in 1944, lived in Primary Hall where the cupola sat.
“[The cupola] is what Primary Hall is,” Hill said.
“I am very disappointed to hear about this, and hurt,” he said through a Teletype device interpreter.
Hill recalled living in Primary Hall underneath the historic cupola as a child.
“We all immediately became family,” he said the students.
“It was truly a home away from home.”
Bonnie Hill, Dan Hill’s wife said upon his mother’s death in 1996, Dan came across letters he had written to her as young boy at the school.
The letters were comprised into a book entitled “Primary Hall”, where the proceeds were to go to the alumni garden with the now-destroyed cupola.
“It’s just sad, and I bet everyone and other alumni are, too,” Dan Hill said.
A scrap yard in Council Bluffs called the school around 1:30 p.m. saying someone had sold the copper to them for about $800 or $2.54 a pound, Angeroth said. The company could not confirm Monday if it had purchased the copper.
Council Bluffs Police Department refused to comment on the investigation Monday night.
The incident is another example of “urban mining’’ in Iowa. Des Moines has had several reports of burglaries through the city of copper plumbing, wiring, and tubing being stolen from homes, construction site and scrap yards during the past year.
Students and faculty at the Iowa School of the Deaf in Council Bluffs were stunned Monday to learn that more than 300 pounds of copper had been stripped off the school’s landmark cupola.
“We’re still trying to get over the shock of it,” said Cindy Angeroth, outreach coordinator for the school. The cupola is “something that people here have many treasured memories of.”
Now 104-years old, the cupola used to sit on top of Primary Hall, a building on campus that was demolished in 2002. The “beautiful betina” cupola was saved, Angeroth said, as it was going to be used for a memorial park.
The cupola, which stands 10 feet tall, was sitting on the ground at the time of the burglary. In all, it weighs 7,800 pounds. The copper’s total weight was 314 pounds.
Angeroth said she did not know who would want to do it, but “I would tell them, ‘You’ve destroyed something that so many people held sacred.”
One of those people is Dan Hill, 79, of West Des Moines.
Hill, who graduated from the School of the Deaf in 1944, lived in Primary Hall where the cupola sat.
“[The cupola] is what Primary Hall is,” Hill said.
“I am very disappointed to hear about this, and hurt,” he said through a Teletype device interpreter.
Hill recalled living in Primary Hall underneath the historic cupola as a child.
“We all immediately became family,” he said the students.
“It was truly a home away from home.”
Bonnie Hill, Dan Hill’s wife said upon his mother’s death in 1996, Dan came across letters he had written to her as young boy at the school.
The letters were comprised into a book entitled “Primary Hall”, where the proceeds were to go to the alumni garden with the now-destroyed cupola.
“It’s just sad, and I bet everyone and other alumni are, too,” Dan Hill said.
A scrap yard in Council Bluffs called the school around 1:30 p.m. saying someone had sold the copper to them for about $800 or $2.54 a pound, Angeroth said. The company could not confirm Monday if it had purchased the copper.
Council Bluffs Police Department refused to comment on the investigation Monday night.
The incident is another example of “urban mining’’ in Iowa. Des Moines has had several reports of burglaries through the city of copper plumbing, wiring, and tubing being stolen from homes, construction site and scrap yards during the past year.