of Chillicothe, Ross County & South-Central Ohio
of Chillicothe, Ross County & South-Central Ohio DRAFT new 7/18/05
The building at 94 West Water Street was recently repaired after a car hit its southwest corner. The work was adequate, but uninformed. It now appears that similar work is being done on the front second floor.
Those of you who attended the Chillicothe Restoration Foundation's free informational talk on historic mortar in April learned that historical brick required a historical formula of mortar - and that most contractors don't know that. Furthermore, if not done properly, the new-formula mortar will gradually damage and destroy the historical brick. ...
Those of you who attended also know that none of the city's Design Review Board members attended. They are the ones who whould know this kind of information, so they can guide building owners in proper maintenance. That body should be a clearinghouse for "Preservation" education, as is strongly worded in its founding ordinance. But it isn't.
Some will recall that this was the "Big Wheel Bicycle Shop." The pole for the long-gone old-fashioned bicycle is still on the corner. But now, instead of two wheels, we have a cast metal sign in front stating that this is the entry to the historic downtown.
DRAFT new 7/18/05
Earlier this year, an unsucessful suicide attempt killed one of several tiny cottages built from Camp Sherman lumber, but the intended victim survived.
You may recall the story ...He cut his gas line, but then worried that someone else would be injured in the resulting explosion...and detonated the gas.
When I saw the cottage a couple days later, I could see that it had returned to its previous state: a pile of lumber. But, this time it was a little charred, as was the siding on adjacent houses.
I forget who told me, but Pickens Avenue, a dead-end street at the northern tip of Piatt Avenue, has about 16 of these little houses that were built from the lumber of dismantled buildings from famed Chillicothe WWI army training "Camp Sherman."
Incidently, this entire neighborhood of rowhouses is owned by County Engineer Don Carnes, who recently had them renovated (which involved removing trim and porches, replacing windows, and residing).
DRAFT new 7/18/05
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Before alterations, from 1909 (photo about 1990)...and then... |
The building is still there, but not its soul...
Behind this nondescript vinyl-sided vinyl-windowed warehouse-like building is...was...the characterful brick former St. Mark's Episcopal Church dating to 1906 at 83 S. Walnut St. ...
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...after alterations, in 2005. |
updated 7/29/05, new 7/18/05
This seemingly useless, tiny, worthless, dilapidated addition tacked onto the side of a building...now isn't.
The decaying shoe shine booth under enclosed Victorian stairs at 4 East Second Street (the address is bigger than it is) was recently restored as the display room of a furniture dealer.
"Cotton Pickin' Cupboards" now occupies empty space that I'm certain few in Chillicothe thought was worth investing in before October 2004.
Pat Medert relates the origin of this litttle mini-building on page 60 in her book on Paint Street Its Buildings & Its People (I highly recommend it).
In 1886 Chillicothe hero and buisnessman Richard Enderlin asked city council permission to build a little office to take orders for ice and coal under the second floor stairs and over the cellar stairs beside John Kaiser's confectionary at 45 North Paint. The addition would be "a cozy frame structure whose sides would be well fitted with sash and have a handsome door on the Paint Street end, just like any other business block."
Apparently it was slightly enlarged (about six inches!) at some point with the plate glass windows, and was last used as a shoe-shine booth, as evidenced by ghosts of shoe stanchions on the floor visible until the recent renovation.
DRAFT new 7/18/05
A two-story wood frame house at the northern end of Church Street withstood a fire last year (?) and has received some renovation.
But just before its auction in May(?) a condemnation notice was posted on it. It still stands, several weeks after the auction, as has for a few months...
I do not know its history, but I can tell from its appearance that it was remodeled probably sometime between 1890 and 1920, with the porch added and twin front doorways installed. As to when it was built, it could be as early as the 1820s (but probably not that early).
The house probably had a trabeated mid-19thC doorway that was later rebuilt as the two doors. (If you missed my Greek Revival talk, "trabeated" generally means a doorway has sidelights and a transom!)
I can imagine this becoming a parking lot for the tattoo parlor next door.
DRAFT new 7/24/05
The minimally International-styled modern commercial building at 160 East Main now has a brand-new old look.
I went to make copies and looked across the atreet, and Lo! there's a modern building being made to fit in better with our historic downtown. (If only that could be done to the vacant lots downtown!)
It's ironic that in Chillicothe old buildings are being destroyed because they are supposedly unfeasible, and yet perfectly good new buildings are being altered to look 'oldish.' Stuck in the middle of trying to look old but still being new, the 'Contractor's Postmodern' styled facade added to the building is not Williamsburg - but that would be wrong, too.
I'm ambivalent about such renovations to recently old buildings such as this c1970 building, seeing them as a sign of rapid aging of current styles and buildings, and flawed popular notions about fitting in. But I appreciate the minimal simplicity of the stripped-classical elements and playful geometries and color of the Postmodern style...though it is usually watered down for the typical strip mall, or absentmindedly tossed onto mundane elevations like the Chillicothe Mall 'arcade.'
The "Medicine Shoppe" at 186 W. Main Street shares the newly added PostMod styling, and may be the reason for this sprucing-up on East Main.
The owner of Anderson's Drug Store has done a decent job to revive this part of East Main Street - especially by not acquiring the neighboring house and flattening it for an L-shaped addition and parking lot (according to rumor) - though I think refreshing the facade as it was would have been a little better. (Retro-Old is fashinable now...just in time to needle me about my age since I remember when 70s fashions were still current!) But a great public good could have been achieved with an arcade across the side parking lot, helping to close in an auto-induced gaptooth in the streetscape.
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