Getting a Peek at the Past

Removing Downtown Facade

A portion of the green metal façade on the building owned by Al Sanders on South Main Street began to be peeled away this past Friday, May 10^th.  Sanders has owned the corner building that houses Al’s Boot Repair and More and Vendor’s Gallery at the intersection of Main and West Olive Streets from almost four years.

The building to the north of his, which also has the green façade, is currently empty.  Sanders says he’s given some thought in the past to turning his section back into a commercial property, but for the time being he just wants to get back to the original brick. “It was great in its day when it was put up, back in the 60s, but I just like brick buildings.  I’m not much into this,” he explained.

Work Underway Downtown Lamar

Workers began to take down the panels from the rooftop edge, working their way to the sidewalk, trying to avoid some of the dust that had seeped in between the paneling and brick over the decades.

“You can see where there had been some damage to the bricks, where there are separations when they put up the metal panel and they actually put the panels over the screens on the windows,” he remarked when more of the wall came into view. “We’re going to have to find someone who can do some masonry repair on that and close off the open area to any rain after it’s been power-washed,” he added.

A look behind the bottom panels on the sidewalk shows where water has seeped into the woodwork, rotting away the plywood that is covering either more brick or mortar. There was no indication either way, other than that the elements had taken their toll.

Sanders doesn’t have any immediate plans for the upstairs portion of the building. “It’s going to take a lot of work there, as it’s leaked for quite a few years.  They did nothing to repair the roof so a lot of the plaster has come down.  I’ve cleaned up on it quite a bit but it still has a long ways to go.”

By Russ Baldwin