This morning, the metal siding that has sheathed the 1856 Gifford Foundry Building for as long as anyone can remember was being removed.
 |
| Photo: Peter Jung |
The building is owned by the Galvan Foundation. In early July 2021, Walter Chatham presented plans for the restoration of this building to the Historic Preservation Commission. At the time, Gossips reported:
Chatham was seeking and was granted a certificate of appropriateness to remove the painted metal siding on the building and to restore the brick underneath. [HPC architect member Chip] Bohl expressed the hope that the details of the brick pilasters were still there. Considering how it appears the metal was installed around the pilasters, it is very likely that a couple of them at least have survived.
This promises to be an interesting restoration to watch.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CAROLE OSTERINK
While GALVAN feels some sort of urgency to restore that building on Columbia, they ignore many of their properties which could actually HOUSE PEOPLE. Such as 70 and 72 N. 5th, decaying houses at the corner of Partition that Galvan purchased in 2012 and appears to have done absolutely nothing with but let them sit vacant and rot. Same as 59 Short Street, purchased same year I believe. No one ever restoring that house built in 1920, with the overgrown weeds and the crumbling front steps. How about the 2 properties, front and rear, at 618 Columbia left to rot? They are all such a treat for the eyes! Galvan doesn't care, and neither does our Code Enforcement Office. There's another brewery to house for visitors; restoring houses is such a pain. Just knock them over and truck them away.
ReplyDeleteB Huston
Doesn't he have enough going on? N. 7th Street, Warren and 4th, 5th and Union. Finish something for f*ck sakes, stop starting new projects and leaving the old ones to sit and fester. UNLESS...there's something in it (money) for him to do work on the building.
ReplyDeleteit would be incredible if the brick and the pilasters were just "under cover". Sometimes all that vinyl or metal siding protects an original underneath.
ReplyDeleteGood luck !
Pardon me, n. 5th at Prospect, not
ReplyDeletePartition.