of Chillicothe, Ross County & South-Central Ohio
of Chillicothe, Ross County & South-Central Ohio new 9/29/04, updated 1/07
"Rainbow Row" is a famous group of historic buildings in Charleston, South Carolina, that are lined up shoulder-to shoulder and painted in various tropical colors. If I recall right, they were featured in a brief scene in the Revolutionary War film "The Patriot" in 2000.
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The Parkview Shops in August of 2004, as repainting and repair was started. |
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The Parkview Shops in January of 2007, after repainting and repair. |
Local businessman, "Petland" investor, and downtown property owner Ed Kunzelman owns this row, which is actually two separate buildings. Separated by a parapet jutting through the roof, the one on the east has two shops on the first floor and two apartments above, and the one on the west has three of each. Recently Mr. Kunzelman had all five prepared for repainting, and some discoveries made during that maintenance led to some dramtic action there at the "Parkview Shops."
If you recall, there were replacement windows on the second floor of the center elevation above the "Heart's Content" shop at 18 W. Water. The wall had already sagged so much that the perfectly squared-up windows looked like straight teeth in a crooked smile. But when the brick wall was being inspected, it was found that some bricks in the upper wall had begun shifting in the last few months.
Having a crack in a wall is not cause for panic. Generally, unless its more than half an inch wide or out of plumb, its probably the kind of adjustment that all building must go through sometime in their life (usually adolescence).
That could have been 100-150 years ago for these mid-nineteenth-century buildings along Water Street. But if a crack 'reawakens' and starts moving after being dormant for a long time, the situation is changing, and you have cause for concern.
After investigating the wall, it was found that only one of the three posts and beams on the first floor that held up the second floor facade was the original solid timber - the other two were five layers of planks - and that all three were weakened. Even the lone timber post had one or two inches completely rotted away at the bottom. The roof was jacked up to get it off the sinking facade, and after being leveled, its center had risen three inches.
Often it is later alterations - and later neglect - that weakens a building, not flaws in the original construction. Allowing water to trickle into a beam, or moisture to wick up a timber, over years and decades will cause catastrophic danger later. And repairing with weaker or less durable materials only sets up a repeat of that or another problem.
A similar problem happened to the former Herrnstein car dealership building next to Kunzelman's buildings. Cutting out a garage door was probably the last straw for the front wall, because the entire facade simply fell off one night, fortunately injuring no one. The current facade of what is now the "Carrs" business at 26 W. Water is a c1980 replacement in modern materials that mimics the original.
Although the original masonry of 18 W. Water was removed and dropped into a dump truck, Mr. Kunzelman tells me that "an expert bricklayer" will be rebuilding the wall. It will be concrete block with a brick veneer up to the top of the second floor, and then solid brick through the attic facade to allow for the recessed panels there. Round steel posts and a square steel beam will hide behind a replacement wooden storefront.
Often subtle elements with significant appearance are overlooked in renovations, such as mortar joints, which tend to be too thick in modern veneer brick. But the mason will need to match the brick remaining on the outer edges of the facade, which will require skill and accuracy. New bricks that closely match the old in color, texture, and size will be used.
Was it Done Right?Leading preservationist Franklin Conaway is pleased to see the building being saved and the storefront being rebuilt to look the way it was, but is disappointed in how it was permitted and done. Instead of being reviewed and approved in a regular meeting of the Design Review Board - the city commission that regulates alterations in the historic downtown - the work was approved by only the president of the board and was done in a manner that drastically changed the building's construction. Although Mr. Kunzelman apppeared before the next meeting of the DRB and explained the work, the changes were already underway.
Instead of spending $20,000 to rebuilt the entire front wall, he says the faulty parts of the facade could have been repaired for only about $2,000 in a "very, very simple way" that would have necessitated only two workers.
Mr. Kunzelman recalled that this stretch of Water Street was on his paper route as a boy - he passed by twelve bars and one "rescue mission." There was even a shooting outside them one time.
When he bought the buildings, there was only one original storefront left among the five (the "Chillicothe Sewing & Vacuum Center" shop at 20 W. Water). Even parts of that had to be put back on, because the front doors were found in the basement. He had the original trim and fixtures replicated for the other storefronts.
"None of this is for investment purposes," he said, gesturing at the row of five units. Mr. Kunzelman does not sink money into these buildings in order to get money out of them. He does it because he appreciates their character and what they add to Chillicothe - he invests in the community.
At 18 W. Water, he is putting $25,000 to $30,0000 into a fairly simple, small building which he charges a reasonable rent for good renters. He feels that with every bit of work he has done to the buildings - little of which is remodelings or anything that hides historic character - they keep looking better.
He laments that many people don't realize the value of such things as old buildings, an old downtown, a community. "They just don't get it," he says. Law enforcement, council members, building owners - they must all work together and make an effort to keep things working and to make things better.
Chillicothe has much potential, more than what it puts to work, because he has seen successful efforts in other towns that capitalize on similar character. "People come here because it's a historic downtown," and he is doing his part to reinforce and expand that character.
"Printer's Alley"There is great potential in the little alley between Mr. Kunzelman's buildings that face Water Street - beside the "Crosspatch" shop at 16 W. Water - and the buildings that face Paint Street (in which he is a partner). It is a public alley, but the city has offered it to him in the past.
In other historic towns like Charleston (South Carolina) or Georgetown (in Washington D.C.), this would be a corridor for an alcove of little shops and apartments.
Mr. Kunzelman travels frequently and visits towns with historic and scenic character, mentioning places that I haven't even heard of: Naperville, Libertyville. He brings back memories, though not photos, but uses them for inspiration.
What he is considering doing is to beautify the alley as a little alcove and a passageway to back-lot shops and apartments. With an archway at the sidewalk, cobblestone paving, and ivy clambering up the brick walls, he would build maybe five tiny little shops (for tiny businesses) towards the back of it to draw people into it, and sacrifice some of the parking in the rear for additional shops.
He plans to remove the jerry-built rear additions to 20 and 22 W. Water and create more separate shop space, and apartment space above. The lone building facing the alley at the rear of 22 W. Water will remain for now, since he felt the little apartment was more important than the three parking spaces its loss would gain.
The buildings facing Paint Street on the corner of W. Water are not just architectural landmarks, but also historical landmarks. They housed a German singing society (the "Eintracht") on the second floor, which is why the unusual two-story circle-headed windows are over 98 N. Paint. Later, the Camp Sherman Officer's Club No. 1 was located there. One of the four German newspapers in Chillicothe, the "Unsere Zeit" ("Our Time"), was printed around the corner in the shop at 12 W. Water. That is why Mr. Kunzelman is thinking of the name "Priter's Alley" for the renovated alley.
Mr. Kunzelman hopes to bring a bakery into the vacant 18 West Water, currently a temporary hallway back to the "Heart's Content" shop. There was one a few doors down, operating from 1806 to 1934, and this would bring back that tradition.
(This storefront has since found use as a home for Book World, moving downtown from Bridge Street.)
The buildings were built after Chillicothe's worst disaster, the "Great Fire" of 1852. A quarter of the town was destroyed by this fire that happened during a blustery April Fool's Day.
The previous buildings along West Water Street were in line with those east of Mulberry and west of Walnut. When thea Ohio & Erie Canal was built beginning in 1829 through the middle of Water Street, that left only a narrow sidewalk and roadway between the busiest businesses in town and the busiest transportation route in the Scioto Valley. After the fire, the building setback was set back 25 feet more to make room for all the business that was happening there.
William Hanley had the east building built and operated a clothing shop in it. John Hirn had the west part built, and there had a grocery store. With the Carrs building (built by George Sosman who had a bakery and grocery there) continuing the same two-and-a-half story elevation, the three buildings "continue the pattern of this facade, making a very impressive group," as is written in architectural inventory forms for the buildings. "This is an excellent example of pre-Civil War commercial architecture and as a part of Chillicothe's downtown historic district, its value is immesurable."
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c1839 Foster engraving of pre-fire Water Street |
The Water Street buildings had large 16-pane storefront windows, double doors to the shops with multi-paned transom windows above them. The wooden posts probably had a little trim at their tops to mimic classical columns. Above blank wooden lintels spaning the storefronts were wooden signboards mounted to the brick walls. Second floor windows had stone sillls and lintels and six-over-six windows. The low attics were originally under almost flat roofs that gently sloped down from a front parapet.
The buildings were almost styleless except for a little flair there at the top. On the front of that third floor parapet were recessed panels in the brick, matching the windows below. These have been descibed as "shadow boxes" which make a suggestion of the short upper-floor windows that were popular in this period. These "frieze windows" were used for the Greek Revival style instead of dormer windows on the roof.
The frieze windows permitted light into the attic story without breaking the classical profile for the restrained, rectalinear style. (Examples of true frieze windows are on the Union Block at 9-21 West Second Street, the canal warehouse at 125 West Water Street, the commercial building at 75 North Paint Street, and the townhouses at 62, 68, and 86 South Paint Street.)
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1858 Daguerrotype of post-fire Water Street |
One of the most famous pictures of Chillicothe, and one of the earliest photos, shows this row of West Water Street buildings about 1860, only seven years or so after they were built. About ten shops line the canal from the corner of Paint Street to the gap at what is now the ice cream shop, almost all identical. Since then, minor changes have happened to all. Maybe about 1870 there appears to have been a fire in the attics of Mr. Kunzelman's buildings, because they now have a gable roof over some charred wood. A wooden cornice was added over the attic parapets.
Instead of hitched horses, rows of kegs, canvas awnings, wooden sidewalks and stacked crates, in front of the shops now are electric streetlamps, angle parking, vinyl awnings, concrete sidewalks, SUVs and sedans. But in many ways, the past is still alive at this section of Water Street in historic Chillicothe.
These buildings are part of one of the most famous streetscapes of Chillicothe, and are in some of the most famous pictures of Chillicothe.
John Grabb's history book "The Canal - It's Rise and Fall in Ross County" is unfortunately out of print, but it includes vingettes on the businesses in the buildings I mention on both Paint and Water streets. Historic photos of the Wissler Building on page 23 and the Kunzelman buildings on page 32 show their picturesqueness and bustle in the past. You can also see the c1839 Foster engraving of pre-fire Water Street on page 8, 1858 Water Street Daguerrotype from the Paint St. bridge on page 32, and another view of Water St. from the Paint Street bridge about 1900 on page 17.
In "Images of America: Chillicothe, Ohio" by G. Richard Peck are view of Water Street from the Walnut Street bridge on page 28, Water Street from the Paint Street bridge on page 29, 1858 Water Street Daguerrotype page 29, c1839 Foster engraving page 69, Wissler Building page 72, Water Street bakery page 73, and Parkview from park page 100.
In "Looking Back - A Pictorial Retrospective Celebrating Ross County, Ohio" by the Chillicothe Gazette and the Ross County Historical Society is the Herrnstein Dealership inside the cover, 1858 Water Street Daguerrotype page 6, Water Street from Walnut Street bridge page 8, Water Street from 'The Duck' page 51, and Parkview from park page 105.
In "Chillicothe, Ohio 1796-1996 - Ohio's First Capital" by the Chillicothe Bicentennial Committee is the Parkview from park page 40, Foster Engraving page 76, Water Street Daguerrotype page 77, Wissler Building page 325, and W. Water Street 1973 page 329.
If you can find a copy, there is also the "Water Street Study - Chillicothe, Ohio 1970" that helped save the West Water Street streetscape.
