Historic building?s removal nears completion

It?s going by bits and by pieces, literally. The once-historic residential/storage building located on the corner of Morford and Sparta streets is nearing its final removal.

The 1940s building and lot, which was purchased by realtor and city Alderman Bobby Kirby in 2006, received a Certificate of Appropriateness in November from the Historic Zoning Commission that would allow for its removal.

While making the request for removal, the commission heard that the building could not be saved and had already been condemned by the city due to roof and floor failure.

At that time, commission members unanimously agreed to allow the removal of the building and Kirby agreed to preserve parts of the building that are salvageable. True to his word, parts of the building have indeed been salvaged.

According to Linda Partin, one of the owners of Warren County Furniture, their truck dock will receive a garage door from the building.

?We have been talking about doing this for years and this opportunity arose,? said Partin while asking the Historic Zoning Commission for a COA to install the door. ?It will be fun to open and close, I?m not going to lie. Ed?s going to be doing it. It will have a big string on it.?

Along with this door, steel beams, windows, interior doors and casings have been removed by different people.

?I received seven to eight calls from people who wanted to go salvage different pieces of material out of it,? said Kirby. ?I let everyone who has called go up and take what they could use. I told them they could have what they could use.?

As for the future of the site, that?s still up in the air.

?I still don?t have any set plans,? said Kirby. ?Once the building is totally down, we can clean it up and tell what we have to work with. We are game to do anything. Anyone who has an idea. We will rent it, sell it or build to suit. Whatever makes anyone happy.?

According to Kirby, complete removal will hopefully be complete by this weekend.