Second Street Fire Losses new 8/27/06

By now, everyone knows about the fires at 33 and 29 East Second Street on July 17th. The building at 33 East Second, housing the Majestic Box Office, caught fire probably from an overheated window air conditioner. The second and third floors were gutted by fire or ruined by water. The fire spread to 29 East Second, housing Jardine Plumbing, and damaged its third floor. Firefighters kept the fire from 25 East Second, housing Office City Express, by hacking a hole in the side of the roof and pouring water in. One of the many stories on the situation is in a Sunday, July 29th article in the Chillicothe Gazette.

Now (as of August 27th) the two burned buildings are in the process of being demolished. But was that necessary? Did downtown Chillicothe need to loose two more buildings, especially in that unique urban canyon-like stretch of East Second Street?

An August 7th letter from David Carrol, who represents the Chillicothe Conservancy, describes the efforts the preservation group made to prevent these uneccesary losses.

Immediately following the fire on July 18, 2006, a representative of the Conservancy contacted the mayor's office...offering to pay the cost for an engineer to evaluate the structural condition of the damaged buildings. ... However, there was no response to this offer.

Why did the Conservancy make that offer?

The offer was made to the City and to the building's owners because of the Conservacy's concern for the preservation of the remarkable streetscape on East Second Street between Paint Street and Mulberry Street, currently regarded by national, statewide, and regional authorities as one of the finest remaining historic streetscapes in the Midwest.

The Chillicothe Conservancy engaged the structural engineering firm of Shelley Metz Baumann Hawk to inspect the damaged buildings, and their Paul Lantz did that July 20th in the presence of Chillicothe Fire Department personnel. The Conservancy describes Mr. Lantz as "a highly regarded and immensely experienced engineer with considerable expertise in evaluating historic structures." In his report (which is on public file with the August Design Review Board paperwork) he described the structural condition of the buildings, described how they can be shored up, and stated that "[i]n my opinion both buildings can be repaired and renovated for future reuse."

Conservancy representative David Carrol gave an oral presentation of the report to the July 20th Design Review Board, before any demolition had begun.

As I communicated that night, the attached report shows that it was not necessary for either building to be demolished, that stabilization work could have been quickly accomplished as an alternative to demolition, and that minimally the historic facades of these buildings could be saved.

Furthermore, the Conservancy questioned whether the city building inspector should have had the power to command that the buildings be demolished.

[I]f an existing structure, or at least the facade, can be economically stabilized preserving the historic streetscape, may the Building Zoning Inspector alone...authorize demolition? If the Building Zoning Inspector currently may authorize demolition...should he do so or should he even be able to do so acting alone? Since Chillicothe has a City engineer and there is no requirement that the Building Zoning Inspector be an engineer, it it really appropriate for the Building Zoning Inspector to have this responsibility?

A letter from the Midwest office of the National Trust urged preservation, stating the potential phoenix-like renaissance possible from such a disaster.

[A] number of similarly damaged brick commercial buildings across the country have been completely renovated and returned to beneficial community use. ... The historic tax credit, which amounts to 20% of the total cost of renovation, has played a key role in several of these adaptive use projects.

Yet, with all this effort, you can see Chillicothe's response to this issue by driving or walking down East Second Street.

By the way, demolition of 33 and 29 East Second Street, beside the Majestic Theatre, has exposed a long-covered painted sign on the side of 25 East Second Street.

It's nice to see it, but its exposure in no means justifies the loss of the two buildings.