Change is a fact of life and as Americans we seem to be unique in our ability to push ahead and embrace what is new and on the horizon with little patience for looking backward.

While the past can be a constellation of shadows, occasionally it is fitting to look back down the path we’ve traversed and nothing quite fits that bill then the history of the La Grande Middle School Annex gym.

As many readers already know, the La Grande School District’s old maintenance building was torn down this week because of its age and to make way for the Wildcat Center, a middle school building that will showcase three gyms and six classrooms. The Annex gym also will make way to the Wildcat Center.

The two structures, though, are not just another set of old buildings. There is a rich vein of history to both and for anyone who has lived in La Grande for any length of time knows and understands that at one time both buildings were at the epicenter of learning and prep sports.

The maintenance building, for example, was constructed more than 80 years ago. The Annex gym was opened in 1936. For a long time both buildings symbolized education in La Grande and a long list of people moved through both as young students.

Sometimes buildings can evolve sort of their own personalities, or perhaps closer to the mark, they can come to represent the familiar background fabric to our lives. For decades area residents walked or drove by the maintenance building and the gym. Each sat as an enduring local icon.

Yet time moves on and so does progress. The two buildings served their purpose and now they will be replaced by a new, more modern facility. Their usefulness ended decades ago.

The new Wildcat Center sounds as if it, too, will be one of those structures that remain fixed in the collective imagination of the town for decades.

I admit I have an affinity for old buildings and their history. Since I arrived in La Grande, the structures remained sort of a fixed guide post that anchored La Grande in my imagination. When I thought of La Grande I always thought of several items, including those two buildings. I imagine I will quickly become used to the new horizon, so to speak, but I hope I don’t forget the image of those two structures, firmly centered in my mind’s eye, that will always represent my adopted hometown.

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Andrew Cutler is the interim editor of The Observer.