Late last November, when the former Reidy-Scanlan building was about to be torn down, I scanned old newspaper microfilms at the Lorain Public Library in an unsuccessful attempt to find out some of the early history of the building.
So, last week – while looking for something else, of course, I finally found what I was looking for: a nice architectural rendering of the building (below). It ran in the Lorain Daily News on August 5, 1913.
The caption reads, “Work is progressing rapidly on the new block building being built at the corner of 21st street and Broadway, for the Reichlin, Reidy, Scanlan Furniture and Undertaking company. The building will be of brick construction and its dimensions will be 58x110 feet. The south side of the building facing Broadway will be used for undertaking parlors and chapel. The bloc will be completed about December 1st and will cost approximately $37,000. The building will be strictly modern and when completed will be one of the finest in the city.
I’m still scratching my head as to why this building couldn’t have been rehabilitated.
Anyway, here’s what the now-empty corner looked like last weekend.
Across 21st Street, the work cleaning up the demolition of the oldest part of the former St. Joe’s is progressing nicely. A handsome new outside wall camouflages the unsightly seams that were exposed as a result of the demolition.
Quite a difference from the view back in August 2013.
3 comments:
More and more your before -and -afters seem to feature rubble.
And we don't mean Barney Rubble either.
Yeah, I understand the reasons why these buildings need to come down, etc. etc. It's been explained to death; too expensive to fix up, heat, etc. But Lorain is losing a lot of its character when these buildings are torn down. In Cleveland where I work, a building like the Reidy Scanlan building would have been converted to lofts, and then a bunch of eclectic bars and boutiques would spring up to cater to the young people who live there. And Lorain seems to be marketing specifically to the young drinking crowd too, so it would be a good fit.
Somebody's making a buck off this, and the community suffers.
Post a Comment