Tuesday, state officials opened up the soon-to-be demolished General Assembly building in downtown Richmond for what might have been the largest yard sale in Virginia history… The public was invited to peruse and purchase all 11-stories of artifacts, office supplies and junk.
Promptly at 11 Tuesday the doors were opened and crowds of treasure-hunters and antique-gatherers flooded in. Among them was Dina Persico, an 8th grade government teacher. For 20 bucks she snagged a couple of signs that once stood outside the House chambers.
“And instead of telling a kid to turn their cellphone off I can put up a sign from the General Assembly that says “The use of cellular telephones is prohibited in the House Chamber. Violations of this rule shall be punishable by the House Rules Committee, your teacher, and your building principal. And I think it’s just going to be a lot more fun to have all this General Assembly memorabilia around my classroom than you know posters and stickers.”
Upstairs, the plush corner office of the House Speaker has already been emptied. Looking out over Capitol Square is Joe Cafarella. He’s here today to snag anything he can get a hold of: leather chairs, granite countertops.
“They need to be taken out and actually looked at and lived another life instead of just a wrecking ball coming in and crashing down on these things."
At the same time -- he’s hoping to strike himself a deal.
“Yeah we’re going to try to haggle - you know as best as possible. Since the taxpayer’s technically already paid for this once, I don’t want to have to pay for it twice.”
Local governments and state agencies got the first pick of things Monday. Anything leftover will go to a state warehouse, before the building is demolished in January.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
