Cliffs next door will be soon going down same route, the shock on our last visit not to mention the smell, such a shame these old lady’s are at the hands of quick buck merchants, the lack of any real maintenance is criminal to my mind.
Its in a very very unstable condition, speaking to the owner, he didn't want this to happen, 2 people have been arrested with starting the fire and now all his hopes and dreams of turning the building into Apartments are crumbling like the bricks on the old New Hacketts hotel. RIP
It’s not like he was gonna fix it back up again, it was left abandoned as you probably know since 2018, set in fire 3 times and now a 4th time, so it’s very unstable anyway after 3 fires to renovate it up. Too much damage and way too much money. The bank wouldn’t loan you that much I think….it’s a goodbye and he should’ve insured it….
These places are our history could they not keep the front bays and beautiful red brick and modernise at the back I know that the drainage and electric wires ect need replacing but to spoil our the historical heritage is beyond me Surely because of housing shortage this seems over kill
I am an historian and preservationist. It sounds like you and I hold the same love and sentiments regarding vintage buildings. However, in many instances like this, the heat of the fire actually weakens or compromises the structure of the individual bricks or stones themselves. In these cases, even the masonry 'shell' walls (even though the blaze didn't bring them down) can't be saved to become historic facades with new construction behind. It's common for people to find this perplexing because, in the mind, masonry construction is connected with the idea of being 'fire proof.'
@@milels6917 I have the impression that, in this case, no investigation was even done regarding whether the historic, brick 'shell' of the building could be preserved. Maybe it was salvageable (excluding the rear wall) and could've been made safe and sound by infilling the shell with new construction. Or maybe not. Sadly, we'll never know because it was a rush to 'rid the city' of a structure that local government was biased against as it saw only a long string of code violations.
