Farewell to the Jacksonville Jewish Center

[johnnyroadglide]

still under investigation by fire marshal

[Timkin]

Annie will probably end up the same way, unfortunately.  This is so sad. It was a beautiful building.  It is curious to me, that some of the features could not/would not be spared. makes absolutely no sense. In some of Dan's pictures, it shows pieces of ornate concrete ( I would loved to have had one of those) that probably went into a landfill.  

Burkhalter is supposed to salvage pieces.. even with the building destroyed , there are pieces of the exterior that could have been spared.. Not even sure the entire building had to be destroyed. Oh well.  Spilled milk now.  I certainly hope Annie Lytle does not end up at the same fate, but every day it seems to be pointing more and more to that.

[mtraininjax]

FS4 is not far behind. No one seems to care of have the money to care.

[John P]

Annie will probably end up the same way, unfortunately.  This is so sad. It was a beautiful building.  It is curous to me, that some of the features could not/would not be spared. makes absolutely no sense. In some of Dan's pictures, it shows pieces of ornate concrete ( I would loved to have had one of those) that probably went into a landfill.   

Burkhalter is supposed to salvage pieces.. even with the building destroyed , there are pieces of the exterior that could have been spared.. Not even sure the entire building had to be destroyed. Oh well.  Spilled milk now.  I certainly hope Annie Lytle does not end up at the same fate, but every day it seems to be pointing more and more to that.

There is information about the salvage on spars blog. I do not think much will be saved.

[iloveionia]

^ and that my friends is asinine.
completely fricken ridiculous.
unacceptable.
i too agree that nothing will be saved.
it is my hope that guerrilla salvagers from the hood salvaged for retention in Spfld.

[ubben]

What happened to the big steel support beams. I'm sure they could be sold for some hefty cash...was the building yanked down immediately just so someone could cash in on the steel? Just curious...

[InnerCityPressure]

Did SPAR try to save this at all?  It seems 3rd and Silver would be in their jurisdiction or very close...

[Timkin]

The building had an extensive fire a couple weeks ago, and that coupled with alot of water put into it to put the fire out, caused the building to begin collapsing. It pretty much had to be demolished.

[Timkin]

FS4 is not far behind. No one seems to care of have the money to care.

I am sure you will be there doing a jig of glee the day that happens , wont you M-train?  And when it does , make sure you do not post another posting directed at me , please.  Your jabs, although endured for far too long , are getting really really old.

[Springfielder]

I think this is the fastest the city has ever acted on anything.  They tore it down less than 10 days after it burned??  Who owns the property now, the city?  If so, they need to clean up their mess and get the site ready for an RFP for development.  That's a great location with a lot of potential.

The city does not own this property. It is owned by a private company. With a huge lien on the property now..

It was also insured....

[Springfielder]

From the spar blog http://sparcouncil.org/spar-blog/

Former Historic Jewish Center

There are two stone panels with menorahs, one stone panel with Ten Commandment scrolls, the architectural details on the facade and the cornerstone which Burkhalter (contractor for demolition) has been attempting to salvage.  It was their intent to cushion the fall of the large decorated stones and panels; unfortunately it doesn’t appear that they were successful. The owner has stated that the size and weight of panels was too much to handle manually, but they were receptive to HPC and SPAR’s requests (and I’m sure calls from many residents and friends of Springfield) to salvage what they can. They will bring all architectural details â€" including pieces â€" to their business for HPC and SPAR to consider purchase.

The SPAR office has received calls from past and current members of the Jacksonville Jewish Center offering to donate towards the saving of architectural details, and we’ll provide information as we have it.

I don't see where Burkhalter salvaged anything at all. It's so sad what happened, a true loss to the historic district

[Timkin]

they did not that I can tell

[iloveionia]

^ I repeat. Absolutely unacceptable.

[Timkin]

I think this is the fastest the city has ever acted on anything.  They tore it down less than 10 days after it burned??  Who owns the property now, the city?  If so, they need to clean up their mess and get the site ready for an RFP for development.  That's a great location with a lot of potential.

The city does not own this property. It is owned by a private company. With a huge lien on the property now..

It was also insured....

Typical city mentality.. I mean, I sort of get that it was very suddenly structurally unstable ,but I do not see any good reason some parts of it were not salvaged. Just makes zero sense. 

It is almost as if it is a deliberate motive in this city to mow down anything that is historic or important and replace it with a dirt lot or a strip mall .

[Bativac]

I think this is the fastest the city has ever acted on anything.  They tore it down less than 10 days after it burned??  Who owns the property now, the city?  If so, they need to clean up their mess and get the site ready for an RFP for development.  That's a great location with a lot of potential.

The city does not own this property. It is owned by a private company. With a huge lien on the property now..

It was also insured....

Typical city mentality.. I mean, I sort of get that it was very suddenly structurally unstable ,but I do not see any good reason some parts of it were not salvaged. Just makes zero sense. 

It is almost as if it is a deliberate motive in this city to mow down anything that is historic or important and replace it with a dirt lot or a strip mall .

My mom told me once about her aunt, who was born in the early 1900s. They lived on a huge piece of property in Georgia and had a 100+ year old home, in good shape. When mom was in her 20s, her aunts were so excited - they were finally tearing down "that old place" and building a state-of-the-art 1970s era ranch style home!

That's the mentality I think of when I think about Jacksonville. Get rid of this "old stuff" and get it out of here. Although I know this building was seriously unsound after the fire, it's still a shame that every piece of it seems to be headed for the dump. The bigger shame is that nobody in town cares, for the most part.