Environmental Progress - Fall 2001

Old Nike Site Buildings Are Now Classrooms

Nearing mid-century mark, Cold War era structures are still functioning

Students at the Beck Area Career Center in Monroe County visit a part of history every day they come to class.

The school occupies neat cream and green painted buildings on the grounds of a former Nike Hercules missile site in Monroe County. Between 1959 and 1969, the site housed missiles, servicemen, radar and other high tech equipment as a part of the St. Louis Area Defense Ring.

A career center is now housed in this former Nike-base structure

Since 1972, teenagers and adults from Monroe, Randolph and St. Clair counties have attended the school to take part in three available programs: alternative education for high school dropouts or at-risk students, vocational education and a licensed practical nursing course.

The school has seen much success over the past three decades. Visitors to the school are often surprised the original buildings are still intact and being used.

"We had a 25th anniversary about three or four years ago and had probably somewhere between 500 or 600 people come out here," said Dennis Works, director of the Beck Area Career Center. " Many people were amazed at the utilization of the site and that we've been able to continue to have great facilities and use them as such for the students and adult educational students in the area."

Finding the original buildings on a former Nike missile site is not a common scene, said Andy Jankowski, environmental protection engineer with the Bureau of Land for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

"I would say probably 90 to 95 percent of the buildings that were there that the Army had put up for their operation as an anti-aircraft missile facility are still intact," Jankowski said. "You know when you think about it they are approaching 50 years old and so it's really kind of an icon when you think about Cold War history.

"There's been some movement to have these sites recognized as national historic places or get them on the registry of National Historic Places," he said.

Like many other Nike Missile sites, investigations for soil and groundwater contamination and removals of underground storage tanks have been done at Beck by the Corps of Engineers and the Illinois EPA.

Additional information about the Beck Area Career Center can be obtained from Dennis Works at 618-473-2222 or on the school's Web site.