maintain the empty building. The city of Rockford was planning to build a $21 million indoor sports facility across the street from the building. The city wanted to put a 115-spot parking lot on the site of the building. Members of the Rockford School Board Operations Committee voted in favor of the idea. On September 23, 2014, the Rockford School Board approved an agreement with the City of Rockford to tear down the building, by August 2014, at a cost of $668,804, and to donate the one-acre parcel of land to the city, for the parking area for the proposed UW Health Sports Factory. The city agreed to give the district goods and services in the amount of $488,804, which is the cost of the demolition and remediation minus $180,000, the estimated five-year maintenance expenses for the building. The goods and services the city promised in the agreement included road salt, trees, and sidewalks for the district's elementary schools, and the vacating of an alley near East High School to make room for a new fieldhouse. Demolition of the building took place in March 2015. Interesting facts Rockford High School was built as two separate buildings attached by an underground hallway. This hallway became known as "Rat Alley". It contained rows of wooden lockers and was only accessible by walking through the "haunted area" also known as the shop. It was the first high school in the United States to organize a band that played at the halftime of a football game, now known as a marching band. The Annual, or yearbook as it is called now, was entitled "The Owl". It was founded in 1890 and has been published continually since 1892. Rockford was the second high school in the country to establish a yearbook. Rockford's baseball diamonds were used by the Rockford Peaches girls professional baseball team starting in 1940. Girls basketball preceded the boys program. The first girls basketball team was formed in 1901. The 1903 squad gained the school a championship by defeating a Polo squad that had previously been undefeated followed by a victory over Freeport in the championship of "Northern Illinois outside of Cook County" with a final score of 10–6. The building was home to Rockford Public School District's central offices and board of education until February 2012. The school's colors were red and black with a nickname based on those colors: the