SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - Machinery and construction crews at the Woodmen Circle Home marked a methodic ending on Monday to a building that once held so much life.

“I knew this day would come, but I just wasn’t quite ready,” said Meridith White, whose grandmother, Margery Eldridge, lived at Woodmen Circle as an orphan.

“It was a great place, and there was nothing haunted about it,” said White. “I mean, it was my grandmother’s home.”

White and her family gathered at the site one last time Monday, holding on to stories and memories before the walls that housed them fell.

“There was a big pond down there, and they would run down there, and they could swim,” said Kimmy Eldridge South, the daughter of Margery Eldridge. “It’s a sad day to really see it torn down, but it’s just too far gone. Somebody should have done something a long time ago.”

Margery Eldridge began living at the orphanage around five years old.

“My mother would not have had a good life at all, and this way she did,” said Eldridge South.

Ten years later, a Sherman family adopted her.

“And [she] was educated, and she went on to Austin College and did the University of Texas,” said Eldridge South.

None of that, along with the lives of her descendants, they said would be possible without Woodmen Circle.

“Just being able to come back, and see something so special to her has been great and showing my kids,” said White. “I don’t even think our family would be here if it weren’t for this home.”

Later this summer, Sherman said they would give bricks from Woodmen Circle to the surviving members of the home and their families.

Demolishing all of the property could take a few months.

So far, the city said the owner would sell the land, but there are no plans for what will go there yet.

During demolition on Monday, construction crews also found a time capsule.

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