Groton – Reid Hildebrand, 37, wanted to peer through the windows of his former elementary school while he still had the chance.

So he stopped at the closed Noank School on Smith Lane a couple of weeks ago, before demolition crews pulled out the windows and erected a fence.

On Monday, crews from Norwich-based Wiese Construction & Environmental Services began demolishing the school, which served  generations of families from the same neighborhood.

"I thought we had more time, but apparently not," said Hildebrand, as excavators cleared brick, metal and concrete.

The project will take four to six weeks to complete, said Mel Wiese, owner of Wiese Construction. Workers are taking the school down in sections so they may recycle materials and clean each area before moving to the next, Weiss said.

The crew is also saving some bricks for a task force that plans to turn the 6.3-acre property into a public garden with an orchard, bee hives and individual garden plots.

The Noank School Public Gardens Task Force may also turn the former footprint of the school building into a public park. Task force members have the cupola in which the school bell hung and may ask for the original bell from the Noank Historical Society.

Carolyn Rymash, 65, said a neighbor is also saving some bricks from the school and gave her the idea to do the same. Rymash wants one brick to remember each year she attended – kindergarten through sixth grade.

The former Noank School opened in 1949 and closed in 2007.

"It is bittersweet," Rymash said on Monday. Her mother went to the elementary school in Noank village before the former Noank School was built. After Noank School opened on Smith Lane, Rymash's sister, then Darthea Berry, was among  the first classes to graduate from it.

Rymash' daughter, Brooke Rymash, 36, also attended the school.

"You used to hear the bell ring for recess," Brooke Rymash recalled.

After the school closed, it fell into disrepair - the heating system failed, the roof leaked and the walls grew mold. Town councilors toured the former school in March 2014 and had to wear protective gear to enter the building.

Perry Liston, 20, a former student, took pictures of the demolition work on Monday. He said he felt like it was absurd to take the building down.

"I feel like the building could have been used," he said.

Carolyn Rymash said she wanted the town to save the school, but if it didn't, she supported the garden.

"I was very upset when they closed it," she said. "That was very upsetting. But I'm glad that they're going to have this garden. And I hope it will do well."

d.straszheim@theday.com

@DStraszheim