Flats area losing 100-year-old saloon
MANSFIELD – A former bar built in Mansfield’s commercial and industrial flats area 100 years ago, near the railroad tracks threading through the near north side, comes under the wrecking ball this spring.
The Schwein Building, 264 N. Main St., was built in 1915 by Frank Schwein, who ran a saloon there. In more recent years, the bar was operated under names including Big Jim’s Place and Little Jean’s.
But it had sat empty for perhaps the past decade, deteriorating, according to local officials, who have arranged to have it demolished, signing a contract with the owners of the adjoining Roger’s Signs and Services property next door, to eventually transfer ownership of the land to them, for $299.
The building has sat covered with plastic, as steps were taken for asbestos abatement, in preparation for demolition by Page Demolition and Excavating of Lucas.
The Richland County Land Reutilization Corp. oversaw the demolition contract — one of its most expensive, at $36,791, though topped by the $49,261 cost to demolish a house at 398 W. Third St.
Land bank Manager Amy Hamrick said $25,000 of the Schwein Building demolition cost came from the need for asbestos abatement.
The Richland County Historical Society “is not going to oppose this demolition,” President Alan Wigton told Hamrick in a letter after a walk-through last fall.
“The building essentially lacks a roof, and the interior has suffered the consequences. It appears from the Google maps satellite imagery that the roof has been stripped off to bare joist, then left exposed. Being in the flood plain, and having been up for sheriff’s sale twice with no bidders, leaves us with no suggestions on any way to save the building,” he wrote.
“It was too far gone to save,” Hamrick said. “You can see daylight through all of those roof areas.”
Wigton said the Schwein Building was the only building from its era in its vicinity. “If it was up in the Carrousel District and part of a group of buildings where it would be severely missed,” someone might have stepped forward to try to save it, as part of a larger commercial neighborhood, he said.
Schwein, a former bartender who began operating his own place by 1904, living above the saloon, apparently built the brick structure over an earlier wooden structure.
The Schwein Building was one of three properties owned by the estate of Doris Jean Walters that were foreclosed on for $27,024 in delinquent taxes in 2013. Properties at 495 Dirlam Court and 220 W. Third St. also were involved in the foreclosure.
In September 2013, the estate’s executor and the county treasurer agreed to let 264 N. Main St. go to sheriff’s sale to try to get back taxes paid off. But the property twice failed to sell, coming to the attention of the land bank.
A year later, James and Geraldine Speelman, owners of the adjacent property, where Roger’s Signs was operated, signed a purchase agreement with the land bank in September 2014.
Under the terms of the Neighborhood Improvement Program grant providing funds for demolition, it can’t immediately be turned over to the Speelmans, Hamrick said.
The land bank will license use of the property to the couple for three years, after which it will be sold to them for $299, she said.
When older buildings are torn down, the land bank gives Habitat for Humanity the first crack at removing architectural elements so the nonprofit can resell them at its ReStore in Ontario, Hamrick said.
Demolition contractors may take any materials remaining to be salvaged at the time bids are let out, she said.
In this case, it was impractical to retrieve some pieces because of dangerous conditions within the building, Hamrick said.
Wigton said the Schwein Building had a 30-by-3-foot leaded glass transom over the storefront — probably hidden behind plywood — and a tin ceiling. But it is sometimes impractical to retrieve architectural pieces — either because of their large size or because of the difficulty extracting pieces intact — when reproductions can be purchased.
lmartz@gannett.com
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Twitter: @MNJmartz