A building that started as a Studebaker car dealership in 1928, but in recent years has been the target of graffiti, has come down near downtown Akron.
The vacant building and lot at the corner of West Market and West streets has been owned for many years by the St. Vincent-St. Mary High School foundation, said school Principal Tom Carone.
Carone said the building was taken down this past week because it had become too difficult to keep up with the graffiti on the building, sometimes at such heights Carone said he’s not sure how the graffiti artists did it. Removal of bricks and debris will continue into this week.
“It will help beautify downtown Akron,” Carone said “We are trying to help clear up the gateway” to downtown.
Carone said the land will be used for green space for the time being, but will be utilized in a future expansion of the school campus. There are no exact details of the plan and Carone acknowledged the land is a few blocks away from the school, which does not own all properties near the campus.
The school will put up some benches and may use the property for physical education classes or outdoor study programs.
“There was no reason to keep it up,” Carone said of the building, which had never been used by the schools and had long ago had its utilities cut off and was boarded up.
But not everyone thinks the demolition, which was done by Ray Bertolini Trucking Co. of Akron, was a good thing.
Karen Starr, who owns Hazel Tree Interiors near the school with her husband, Jon Haidet, said she is bothered that a building with beautiful architecture and history was torn down.
“It was a punch in the gut,” Starr said of the demolition. “No one saw it coming, even though we all knew it could eventually come.”
The building has housed several different car dealers and an office supply store. Carone said he’s not sure when the building was last used. Carone confirmed someone salvaged the Studebaker logo sign that was toward the top of the building, though he didn’t know whom.
Starr, who also lives in the West Hill area of Akron near her business and the school, said she understands that the school’s foundation, as the owner of the building and land, has the right to do whatever it likes with the building. But she and other preservationists are still disappointed.
“Buildings like that are part of the fabric of our city,” she said.
If the building could have been re-utilized, she said, it would have helped in the redevelopment of the area.
Starr said she worries that old buildings with character are too often torn down for new construction, making downtown Akron look like the suburbs.
“We can’t do anything about the Studebaker building. What we can do is realize value for neighborhoods to be healthy and interesting and tie that to economic development. People want to live in places that are culturally and architecturally rich.”
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty