Pure nostalgia 🥲 My Mamaw and Papaw raised me in the middle apartment (the one with the direct entrance from the street). I lived there with them from ages 2-10 between ‘95-‘03 before we moved to a house on West Ridge Ave. This video brought back a ton of my childhood memories. My height marks were recorded on the bathroom’s door framing. My Mamaw gave me baths in that kitchen sink. Ah! I could go on and on. Except for the store on the first level, I covered every square of that building as a kid. I’ve been in every apartment, and even snuck into the boiler room a few times (I still have nightmares about that place). I’m elated and grateful you all are taking efforts to preserve it. I’m sorry about the damage to the steps. I used to hit them with a hammer as a kid and drive the broken pieces around in my toy dump trucks. Anyways, I’d love to be involved in this project somehow, so I’ll DM your FB page.
Those little doors were for milk deliveries. We had them in some old buildings here in Scotland. 🤗 I’m looking forward to seeing you bring this beautiful building back to life 💕🤗
I was about to say! I know what they are! We have one into our 1935 house and in my parents old 1925 house they had one also - but we had milk delivery well into the 90’s in Vancouver Canada - but the milkman also delivered: eggs, cheese & bread - it was AWESOME! We had a big family so once a week we had a super over flowing box! Oh and cottage cheese and yogurt!
@@radicalmama135 those were the days eh when the milkman was part of the community and provided a much needed delivery service of local fresh products right to our doors. 🤗our milkman also delivered bread rolls, eggs and other milk products like cream, yogurt, butter and cottage cheese. In the early 1990’s the old man who was a third generation dairy farmer died. Sadly his family decided to shut down the whole dairy, sell the property and herd and so ended our deliveries of beautiful fresh cream and milk. Also a part of our areas social history died too. It must have been really hard competing with the ever expanding amount of supermarkets with lower prices. Tbh I much preferred the taste of the dairy products from that local farm there is no comparison to supermarket products contained in plastic bottles. 🙁 I haven’t heard of any traditional “milkmen” in our area (central Scotland )since sadly.
I have driven by that building possibly hundreds of times, and I was always intrigued by its appearance, even as a child. Long ago, the only way to get to Norton and Wise was to go through Appalachia. I have long thought that Appalachia deserved some restoration. It's a place worth saving.
This is really cool! I will bet opening in front window and a window to the shaft will create one heck of a cross breeze with that pressure difference from the height of the shaft. I wish we still used passive heating and cooling techniques like that today
You’ve definitely got your work cut out for you but I can see how awesome that building will be restored. I appreciate your doing the video walkthrough
Dude I'm about 20 minutes in and stressed to the max. I didn't catch any explanation on what they plan to do with it it or what they did but this thing is toast. The cost to demo and rebuild all that's garbage will be prohibitive unless they have some grant or something. It wasn't a good design from the get go. What a turd. I gotta get off this video. The money pit factor is just wrecking my peace.
wonderful building! If walls could talk. So sad to see our world shift this way. I'm grateful I got to live in the 70s and on. Seeing these small towns back in the 70s was amazing because of slower technology and no internet they were still full of what was in the 50s. I drive around our town and recall all the diners and gas stations, streets full of mom and pop shops, churches and community buildings etc. All is gone now. A different world... can't wait to see the buildings process.
When I was 4, my parents had a salesman come in and do a layout of kitchen cabinets for a remodel they were doing to their home. He sold them 'Youngstown Cabinets". This was around 1954. The cabinets were white with the logo on the face of the sink cabinet. The white paint yellowed so badly that my parent put wood grained contact paper over all the facing surfaces. Now this eventually shrank over time and it was at that point my parents had the cabinets replaced with custom wood cabinets in the late 70's. The old cabinets were working just fine but they just became unsightly. The cabinets were manufactured in Youngstown Ohio. Hope that helps with your quiry into your's.
In 1960, my parents bought a house built in 1955 with a yellow baked enamel steel Youngstown cabinet kitchen. It came with triple deck "Lazy Susan" storage in two corners under the counters. My sister inherited the house, and the kitchen is still in place, with the exception of the built in GE dishwasher (which gave out in the 1970's). It's the ultimate in Mid Century Modern design. BTW, I grew up close enough to Southwest VA to remember a Roanoke, VA TV station commercial that was the shortest ever. It featured a flying saucer/coal tag with an announcer saying: "Olga Coal---Olga Coal--Out of this world---Out of this world." The Olga Coal tags I actually saw were small marked cardboard discs that would burn up with the coal.
Great video. Awesome to see you both take an interest in reviving the area you grew up in. Loved the down to earth presentation. And the camera work was good. The camera was held steady and not moved to qucikly form view to view in a vertigo inducing manner that can sometimes happen. It must be tricky to film when you are having to be considerate of not falling through the floor. I will be following your progress with much interest.
Congratulations on getting your rescue of this beautiful building underway. It’s a lot of work but its completion will be so rewarding to you, to your community, and to the tourists you attract!
Wow! What a challenge you purchased! The first challenge is where to locate A huge construction dumpster? That whole building needs to be gutted to the studs/walls. Maybe you could get a local trades school to help with gutting and rebuilding. You will need many hands to tackle that place!
I have a feeling that the little alcoves with the doors that open into the apartments were for milk deliveries, you'd put the empty bottles out and get full ones back, and the milkman never had to enter the apartment. They look too small to be for ice deliveries, but I've seen that too in old apartments. Since they do have doors into the apartments, I'm sure they aren't for telephones, though they are about the right size for a phone niche. It looks like there's a lot of good bones to save, even though there is a lot of damage, because there's also a lot of good features left. Good luck with your restoration.
yeah, it is so far gone, why doing this, its not even a nice or quality building, its just a very cheap building that has never been maintained in a super poor town with no future.
This really takes me back to the early 70’s in SIoux City. My parents owned several buildings in downtown that looked like this one. I remember doing many renovations to the apartments during summers in college.
I remember this unique building. I lived in W.Va. and my grandparents. Lived in Roanoke,Va. And the other grandparents in Russell Co. Va. Oh, those winding roads I had to take medicine before every trip!
Later, in 1993, we bought a house built in 1905. It is surrounded by houses built in the 1890s. Our house had been heated by coal, and employed a gravity furnace (meaning the heat rose from the basement, through passageways or chambers to the upper floors), though by time we bought it, it had been converted to natural gas & forced air with ductwork. We reclaimed the coal bin room, for more storage in our basement. There was an original canning room, for preserving home grown fruits and vegetables. All the houses on our street have brick built, underground cisterns, for collecting rain water, in the backyards. The timbers used in our house, predate modern sizing, and the nails are older style. We updated two lavatories removing the massive pedestal sinks, and single spigot fixtures, & 5 gallon toilet tanks.
The square open to the sky in the building is called a lightwell. They actually built those in San Francisco as loadbearing exterior walls in the center of the building. It let light down and air circulation, but in San Francisco they were more of an anti-earthquake addition.
They also came in as regulations in NYC in the 1920’s as regulation for light and air - so you didn’t have these behemoth buildings with interior rooms without any exterior egress, no air circulation and no light whatsoever
That is a fascinating building, I am glad that you are going to restore it. As you know from others those niches are for milk bottle delivery. I am looking forward to follow the restoration project. I have subscribed, hope you will do video updates. Thank you for sharing this. ❤❤👍👍
In my teens, I helped renovate an old apartment building, and this building brought back many of those memories. I found an old sheriff’s badge with the name scratched off inside one of the walls. It was like a time capsule. The first floor had plaster and trim from the 20’s at the latest, and the daylight basement apartment had cheap paneling from the 70’s. It was in Star City, WV.
Very cool building and project. Just fyi, all of the sheet paneling is a much later addition. All of it. I’d guess late 1960s or later. Also, by 1920 there were closets designed and built in at times. I subscribed to your channel so I can see the progress!
Being nosy, but for the outside steps, I recommend a hand hold. I am now disabled and notice when there is nothing to hold onto. You could put it just on the building side, if you want to keep the outside edge open like it is now.
My cousin is restoring a beautiful old building in North Central Iowa . My family used to fix buildings too. You have many adventures ahead of you. Wishing you the best on this amazing project.
I totally agree with the person from Scotland about the third floor apartment hallway boxes being for milk delivery. Which were accessible from in the kitchens. Good luck your refurbishing project. I bet it will be great!
I moved to Columbus, Ohio from Athens, Ohio, about 100 miles, North East away. My girlfriend and I rented an apartment in an old city block, the main buildings were built in 1896,...and additional ones were added in 1900. Our suite had 14 foot ceilings covered in stamped tin. The rooms had at one time been illuminated by natural gas lamps, as there were capped gas lines in the ceilings and on the walls in the living room. The windows were 8 foot tall. Instead of steam radiators, the rooms were heated by basic (passive) gas heaters, vented to chimneys. So they were not aided by electric fans, the heat just radiated out and natural convection moved the heat about. We also used portable electric baseboard heaters. There was an oversized claw foot tub, large enough for two occupants. We rigged up a shower & an enclosure. A simple copper pipe frame, with shower curtains. We restored the original 1905 kitchen, stripping & repainting the many well built cabinets. We stripped the paint off of sturdy chrome over brass, cabinet latches and hinges. We purchased from a salvager, a 1905 era kitchen exit door, with a built in window, which we restored, that lead to a large open sided outside porch. We lived there for 10 years, beginning in 1982. The rent was ridiculously low, because we rented it in "as is" condition. It was up to us to pay for any improvements, & repairs. Rent: $75.00, with gas, water, electricity all included. It was on the second floor, above an "old timers tavern".
@@AppalachianRisingVentures The building is still standing, and the oldest section had it's brickwork & trim restored. It is called or named "The Ramlow Block", after the original family who had lived there, and there is an alley with the same name. We had our neighborhoods, renamed based on re-discovered history. Our's used to be referred to as "North Campus" (North of the campus of The Ohio State University),...is now named The Old North. (Not to be confused with another area south of there, named The Short North.) The name for the area in general, is The University District. About 30 years ago all the old names were rediscovered, and our main roadway, is North High Street. In the early 1900s, there were iron arches, that crossed over North High Street, from our downtown to the northern end. Each neighborhood had their name on one, and they had been illuminated by gas overhead lamps. Now modern LED bulbs are used, in some areas the lamps, can go through a sequence of rainbow colors. In 1901 the nick name for our city, was Arch City. Columbus Ohio is the capital of the state of Ohio.
It's awesome to see somebody preserving this kind of stuff. I sure hope we get future updates on this building I really want to see what it looks like as they go along.
Wow... I applaud your bravery in taking on this task!. We renovated (have not finished) a HOME near Cincinnati. We gutted a few rooms... had a new beam put in, concrete floor installed.. it was a hot mess. We think the entire building had been moved from across the street .. and at that time a lower level build in.. It is a lot of scary hard work to rebuild old hoimes and you have a mASSIVE project on your hands. I wish you the best of luck and can't wait to see the progress!!
That building has so much potential it is insane! You can not rebuild anything like this anymore. The wood structure that is in it. Is strong along with the bricks. Plus the original radiators is just awesome.
The Boxes may be Milk Chutes back to when the milk man traveled in the early hours of the morning leaving bottles and wire trays at residences throughout towns and cities.
I really do hope that they have enough money for this renovation! Way too many old saveable buildings are being torn down to be replaced with "new & improved" crap! They just don't make anything the way they used to & new stuff isn't built to last! This building, if renovated correctly, could last another hundred years or more❤if it's looked after & cared for!!!
Bless their hearts...LOTS of work to be done..hope they're part owners in a Bank...sorry..I know old buildngs should be saved,but this one..I would tear down...way too much damage.
37:29 I was wondering about how recently somebody lived in that last apartment as I noticed the battery operated “Swifter Mop” that sprays cleaner on the floor and those are a *very* modern product. We currently have one in our house and we likely purchased that in 2018 or 2019. 😂
That lowest decorative section of brick work is called a "soldier course" If you can imagine soldiers all standing shoulder to shoulder upright all in a line. Have a look again.
Water issues need to be addressed foremost before it deteriorates your building. Re-tar or address the roof. A tiny crack can take down a huge building. Y'all have a great adventure ahead of you. You seem like great folks, - Ken in Rome, GA.
Subscribed. This is going to be a serious project. For future videos slow that camera down. Steady the handheld light in the areas you are showcasing. I realize for most of the gut you won't have running electric to much of the building. Appreciate you chose to save this building! Best to you in renovations. Look forward to following the progress. I sure hope you can have a shoot from the top to a rollback dumpster on the main street.
I attended Ohio University which is in southern Ohio, in Athens Ohio. I rented suites in many buildings that were built in the late 1890s and early 1900s. In fact your building resembles many of the old buildings that are standing to this day. Athens Ohio is in the foothills of Appalachia. The town is very hilly. Ohio University is the only reason the town is still vibrant, and reasonably well taken care of. The streets are all exposed pavers.
@@SillyPutty3700 Yeah, boy! I was there from 1972- 1976,.....I lived on the East Green, dorms Bush Hall and another, i forget the name, now. (maybe Read Hall) Then rented a suite in a 4 story newer apartment,....which may not exist anymore, called Lake View Apts. Then i rented a place on Court Street, in an ancient hotel converted to apartments,...Probably built in the late 1800's. Maybe it was once called the Athens Motel,....My college chums bought land outside of town in the Guysville /Stewart cities. Loved the lush green rolling hills, backroads the snaked their way through the backwoods. In 1972, parts of Athens felt like it was still living in the 1950s & early 60s. Old 1950s' wrecked and rusting cars, were hidden in the underbrush. Lots of abandoned farm houses to explore. The South Green river had already be re-routed,...but it still flooded it's banks from time to time. South green had elevated walkways. Lots of good times were had.
Wow, what a challenging project you've taken on. Unless you are prepared to spend well into 7 figures on this building, you will have to completely gut the structure and start over. You may be able to rescue some of the wood work and such, but there's just not much left to rescue. I subscribed and look forward to following your progress.
Nice building. I would wonder if one of those phone stations was a dumb waiter. To move produce upstairs? I also love those old steps, as short of rise you can. Much better for walking.
The boxes that you thought might be for telephones might have been for deliveries so if the homeowner was not there it could be popped through the hatch.
32:42 I’d bet those little panels were for ice deliveries directly into the “Ice Boxes” in each unit. Given where the fridge is sitting and that they latch from inside the unit, that would be my guess. 😮
More likely, it was a milk/bread box. Ice would have to have been put immediately put into the icebox. You can't have ice melting on wood & running down the walls. When I was little, the bread man & milkman rang the bell, but we lived in a house & this is an apartment building, so IDK how they would have done it.
Kudos for your efforts in restoration, as this looks like a Herculean task. I don't see how you could possibly recoup your costs in your region, however.
Little doors in the hallway with latches are milk bottle delivery doors. My old apartment in Hyde Park in Tampa had one. You would put your empties in there and the milkman would replace with fresh full bottles on delivery day. That's what it looks like to me. That's what the ones in my 1920s apartment building were for. I also had a little alcove on the wall where the old phone was.
"Picture Molding" in apts., and that white light shade in apt. #2 is "Mid-Century Modern" 1960s. Slab doors "came in" in the the 60s and 70s. Original doors would be solid 4-panel wooden doors. You are missing mortar between some bricks. The need to be re-pointed (simple) to keep out water and decay. John is correct, those are two hallway "Telephone Boxes". They are early third 0f 1900s and from the depth had "candle Stick" phones with a brass separate ringer bell on the wall beside each one activated by an electricity signal when the (live person) operator plugged the wire for that phone in the switchboard. These were probably 1920s - 1940s. Some had an little shelf below for note paper & pencil and/'or phone number book (even one with 4 or 5 pages, nut these probably were hing on a nail in the wall when you used a hole punch in the upper left binding corner. If they were in a nicer home the bell would be via a built-in speaker in wall below the box. Onw could buy these from Sears and Montgomery-Ward. Later, when the rotary model phones came out, the bell was inside. ( Ig the phone shelf was in a plastered wall - some with a arched top, would be called a "phone niche". )
They were niches for the milk bottles as there was one for each unit. Since they had a latched door on the back in the kitchen. No one would put phones in the halls of an apartment building. They did have those niches in larger houses like you are thinking about, but mostly they were for wealthy people and located near an entryway close to the entrance. I worked in an early 1900 mansion with a phone nich in it, they placed a small figurine of Mary in it.
Pure nostalgia 🥲 My Mamaw and Papaw raised me in the middle apartment (the one with the direct entrance from the street). I lived there with them from ages 2-10 between ‘95-‘03 before we moved to a house on West Ridge Ave. This video brought back a ton of my childhood memories. My height marks were recorded on the bathroom’s door framing. My Mamaw gave me baths in that kitchen sink. Ah! I could go on and on. Except for the store on the first level, I covered every square of that building as a kid. I’ve been in every apartment, and even snuck into the boiler room a few times (I still have nightmares about that place). I’m elated and grateful you all are taking efforts to preserve it. I’m sorry about the damage to the steps. I used to hit them with a hammer as a kid and drive the broken pieces around in my toy dump trucks. Anyways, I’d love to be involved in this project somehow, so I’ll DM your FB page.
i hope those height marks get preserved
I’m gonna look for the height marks and see if they are still there!
Those little doors were for milk deliveries. We had them in some old buildings here in Scotland. 🤗
I’m looking forward to seeing you bring this beautiful building back to life 💕🤗
Exactly what I thought. They would open right over the icebox in each kitchen.
I was about to say! I know what they are! We have one into our 1935 house and in my parents old 1925 house they had one also - but we had milk delivery well into the 90’s in Vancouver Canada - but the milkman also delivered: eggs, cheese & bread - it was AWESOME! We had a big family so once a week we had a super over flowing box! Oh and cottage cheese and yogurt!
Mud flood
@@radicalmama135 those were the days eh when the milkman was part of the community and provided a much needed delivery service of local fresh products right to our doors.
🤗our milkman also delivered bread rolls, eggs and other milk products like cream, yogurt, butter and cottage cheese. In the early 1990’s the old man who was a third generation dairy farmer died. Sadly his family decided to shut down the whole dairy, sell the property and herd and so ended our deliveries of beautiful fresh cream and milk. Also a part of our areas social history died too.
It must have been really hard competing with the ever expanding amount of supermarkets with lower prices. Tbh I much preferred the taste of the dairy products from that local farm there is no comparison to supermarket products contained in plastic bottles. 🙁
I haven’t heard of any traditional “milkmen” in our area (central Scotland )since sadly.
Lol just posted this.
Wow! That’s going to be a huge renovation job. Looking forward to follow on your renovation adventure. 👍💪🏼
I have driven by that building possibly hundreds of times, and I was always intrigued by its appearance, even as a child. Long ago, the only way to get to Norton and Wise was to go through Appalachia. I have long thought that Appalachia deserved some restoration. It's a place worth saving.
Very interesting building, wish the camera person would show more of the building and less of the person talking.
she´s the boss, who pay the bills, who claim the reign, the one to be on spot
You probably wish for a lot of things to make yourself feel better about your self. 🫠 womp womp womp
Yeah bad video.
Definitely left a lot of curiosities to be desired..especially the amazing view out of the curved front she bragged about.
I agree, the video is a tour of the building, not the people doing the tour…
This is really cool! I will bet opening in front window and a window to the shaft will create one heck of a cross breeze with that pressure difference from the height of the shaft. I wish we still used passive heating and cooling techniques like that today
Beautiful old building. Glad to see it saved instead of demolished. Love the architecture. Gonna be amazing when its finished. 😊
Thank you for sharing your journey with us!! Looking forward to watching you all bringing the building back to its original state 👍
You’ve definitely got your work cut out for you but I can see how awesome that building will be restored. I appreciate your doing the video walkthrough
I love love old buildings thank you for working on this cool place.
NO idea how you came up as a recommendation but I am here for it. What a fabulous venture. My house is a puzzle form 1900.
Dude I'm about 20 minutes in and stressed to the max. I didn't catch any explanation on what they plan to do with it it or what they did but this thing is toast. The cost to demo and rebuild all that's garbage will be prohibitive unless they have some grant or something. It wasn't a good design from the get go. What a turd. I gotta get off this video. The money pit factor is just wrecking my peace.
wonderful building! If walls could talk. So sad to see our world shift this way. I'm grateful I got to live in the 70s and on. Seeing these small towns back in the 70s was amazing because of slower technology and no internet they were still full of what was in the 50s. I drive around our town and recall all the diners and gas stations, streets full of mom and pop shops, churches and community buildings etc. All is gone now. A different world... can't wait to see the buildings process.
When I was 4, my parents had a salesman come in and do a layout of kitchen cabinets for a remodel they were doing to their home. He sold them 'Youngstown Cabinets". This was around 1954. The cabinets were white with the logo on the face of the sink cabinet. The white paint yellowed so badly that my parent put wood grained contact paper over all the facing surfaces. Now this eventually shrank over time and it was at that point my parents had the cabinets replaced with custom wood cabinets in the late 70's. The old cabinets were working just fine but they just became unsightly. The cabinets were manufactured in Youngstown Ohio. Hope that helps with your quiry into your's.
In 1960, my parents bought a house built in 1955 with a yellow baked enamel steel Youngstown cabinet kitchen. It came with triple deck "Lazy Susan" storage in two corners under the counters. My sister inherited the house, and the kitchen is still in place, with the exception of the built in GE dishwasher (which gave out in the 1970's). It's the ultimate in Mid Century Modern design. BTW, I grew up close enough to Southwest VA to remember a Roanoke, VA TV station commercial that was the shortest ever. It featured a flying saucer/coal tag with an announcer saying: "Olga Coal---Olga Coal--Out of this world---Out of this world." The Olga Coal tags I actually saw were small marked cardboard discs that would burn up with the coal.
@@charlesyoung7436 Wow a coal ad on tv! That's a neat era overlap.
Always loved that building. My grandparents and an Uncle & Aunt lived at the top of the street. Can't wait to see the renovation.
Im looking forward to following your restoration progress.😊
I had family that lived in that building for a long time.
What a great project and huge undertaking! Good luck.
Great video. Awesome to see you both take an interest in reviving the area you grew up in. Loved the down to earth presentation. And the camera work was good. The camera was held steady and not moved to qucikly form view to view in a vertigo inducing manner that can sometimes happen. It must be tricky to film when you are having to be considerate of not falling through the floor. I will be following your progress with much interest.
We can't wait for more videos.
Congratulations on getting your rescue of this beautiful building underway. It’s a lot of work but its completion will be so rewarding to you, to your community, and to the tourists you attract!
What a cool building! Looking forward to seeing what you do with it!
Wow! What a challenge you purchased! The first challenge is where to locate A huge construction dumpster? That whole building needs to be gutted to the studs/walls. Maybe you could get a local trades school to help with gutting and rebuilding. You will need many hands to tackle that place!
These people have no idea what they are doing. In a few years they will be dazed, broke and walk away. Sad.
I have a feeling that the little alcoves with the doors that open into the apartments were for milk deliveries, you'd put the empty bottles out and get full ones back, and the milkman never had to enter the apartment.
They look too small to be for ice deliveries, but I've seen that too in old apartments.
Since they do have doors into the apartments, I'm sure they aren't for telephones, though they are about the right size for a phone niche.
It looks like there's a lot of good bones to save, even though there is a lot of damage, because there's also a lot of good features left.
Good luck with your restoration.
Yes !! It's just what I thought too.
I can't imagine how expensive its going to be to reclaim that huge building.
Gotta be millions.
I hope your plan is successful, good luck!
yeah, it is so far gone, why doing this, its not even a nice or quality building, its just a very cheap building that has never been maintained in a super poor town with no future.
This really takes me back to the early 70’s in SIoux City. My parents owned several buildings in downtown that looked like this one. I remember doing many renovations to the apartments during summers in college.
This is like the icing on the cake for me as i have seen this building from the outside only in another youtubers video of the town ! Its so cool !
I remember this unique building. I lived in W.Va. and my grandparents. Lived in Roanoke,Va. And the other grandparents in Russell Co. Va. Oh, those winding roads I had to take medicine before every trip!
I bet the 3rd floor "boxes" were milk delivery since they go to the kitchen.
That is what I and several other people have also come to the conclusion of. So interesting!
Milk delivery or ice delivery.
Agreed
Later, in 1993, we bought a house built in 1905. It is surrounded by houses built in the 1890s. Our house had been heated by coal, and employed a gravity furnace (meaning the heat rose from the basement, through passageways or chambers to the upper floors), though by time we bought it, it had been converted to natural gas & forced air with ductwork. We reclaimed the coal bin room, for more storage in our basement. There was an original canning room, for preserving home grown fruits and vegetables. All the houses on our street have brick built, underground cisterns, for collecting rain water, in the backyards. The timbers used in our house, predate modern sizing, and the nails are older style. We updated two lavatories removing the massive pedestal sinks, and single spigot fixtures, & 5 gallon toilet tanks.
Really cool building.👌
Wonderful that you are restoring the building.
You are very brave to take saving this building on. Good luck. 🙏✌️
The square open to the sky in the building is called a lightwell. They actually built those in San Francisco as loadbearing exterior walls in the center of the building. It let light down and air circulation, but in San Francisco they were more of an anti-earthquake addition.
They also came in as regulations in NYC in the 1920’s as regulation for light and air - so you didn’t have these behemoth buildings with interior rooms without any exterior egress, no air circulation and no light whatsoever
18:40 bathroom light is MCM and worth a bit of money. Nice building! So glad you guys got it. It’s has real character.
thanks for posting!!! I've daydreamed about this building for a long time!
That is a fascinating building, I am glad that you are going to restore it. As you know from others those niches are for milk bottle delivery. I am looking forward to follow the restoration project. I have subscribed, hope you will do video updates. Thank you for sharing this. ❤❤👍👍
In my teens, I helped renovate an old apartment building, and this building brought back many of those memories. I found an old sheriff’s badge with the name scratched off inside one of the walls. It was like a time capsule. The first floor had plaster and trim from the 20’s at the latest, and the daylight basement apartment had cheap paneling from the 70’s. It was in Star City, WV.
I love looking at how those wonderfully skilled masons build things….that Peak building is beautiful…and really cool!
Very cool building and project. Just fyi, all of the sheet paneling is a much later addition. All of it. I’d guess late 1960s or later. Also, by 1920 there were closets designed and built in at times. I subscribed to your channel so I can see the progress!
what he said ,kudos.
Being nosy, but for the outside steps, I recommend a hand hold. I am now disabled and notice when there is nothing to hold onto. You could put it just on the building side, if you want to keep the outside edge open like it is now.
Good luck, look forward to seeing the progress.
My cousin is restoring a beautiful old building in North Central Iowa . My family used to fix buildings too. You have many adventures ahead of you. Wishing you the best on this amazing project.
I totally agree with the person from Scotland about the third floor apartment hallway boxes being for milk delivery. Which were accessible from in the kitchens. Good luck your refurbishing project. I bet it will be great!
Thanks for the video. Mixed-use housing has always been interesting to me. Here's wishing you the best of luck in your restoration.
Interesting! God bless everyone who is involved in the restoration of this historic building!
Just stumbled across your videos and love the idea of restoring them! Can wait to see what's next!
Beautiful building with a lot of potential. Hope you folks post an update some time in the future.
Best of luck… I admire your effort and wish you the best in restoring that beautiful old building.
I moved to Columbus, Ohio from Athens, Ohio, about 100 miles, North East away. My girlfriend and I rented an apartment in an old city block, the main buildings were built in 1896,...and additional ones were added in 1900. Our suite had 14 foot ceilings covered in stamped tin. The rooms had at one time been illuminated by natural gas lamps, as there were capped gas lines in the ceilings and on the walls in the living room. The windows were 8 foot tall. Instead of steam radiators, the rooms were heated by basic (passive) gas heaters, vented to chimneys. So they were not aided by electric fans, the heat just radiated out and natural convection moved the heat about. We also used portable electric baseboard heaters. There was an oversized claw foot tub, large enough for two occupants. We rigged up a shower & an enclosure. A simple copper pipe frame, with shower curtains. We restored the original 1905 kitchen, stripping & repainting the many well built cabinets. We stripped the paint off of sturdy chrome over brass, cabinet latches and hinges. We purchased from a salvager, a 1905 era kitchen exit door, with a built in window, which we restored, that lead to a large open sided outside porch. We lived there for 10 years, beginning in 1982. The rent was ridiculously low, because we rented it in "as is" condition. It was up to us to pay for any improvements, & repairs. Rent: $75.00, with gas, water, electricity all included. It was on the second floor, above an "old timers tavern".
I would have loved to see that!
@@AppalachianRisingVentures The building is still standing, and the oldest section had it's brickwork & trim restored. It is called or named "The Ramlow Block", after the original family who had lived there, and there is an alley with the same name. We had our neighborhoods, renamed based on re-discovered history. Our's used to be referred to as "North Campus" (North of the campus of The Ohio State University),...is now named The Old North. (Not to be confused with another area south of there, named The Short North.) The name for the area in general, is The University District. About 30 years ago all the old names were rediscovered, and our main roadway, is North High Street. In the early 1900s, there were iron arches, that crossed over North High Street, from our downtown to the northern end. Each neighborhood had their name on one, and they had been illuminated by gas overhead lamps. Now modern LED bulbs are used, in some areas the lamps, can go through a sequence of rainbow colors. In 1901 the nick name for our city, was Arch City. Columbus Ohio is the capital of the state of Ohio.
Can't wait to see this reno.. what a cool building
Very cool building glad to see you guys bringing it back to life again
It's awesome to see somebody preserving this kind of stuff. I sure hope we get future updates on this building I really want to see what it looks like as they go along.
Wow... I applaud your bravery in taking on this task!. We renovated (have not finished) a HOME near Cincinnati. We gutted a few rooms... had a new beam put in, concrete floor installed.. it was a hot mess. We think the entire building had been moved from across the street .. and at that time a lower level build in.. It is a lot of scary hard work to rebuild old hoimes and you have a mASSIVE project on your hands. I wish you the best of luck and can't wait to see the progress!!
That would be an awesome Cigar/Restaurant store. Great buy!
That building has so much potential it is insane! You can not rebuild anything like this anymore. The wood structure that is in it. Is strong along with the bricks. Plus the original radiators is just awesome.
Good for you guys renovating these pieces of history.
that will be quite an undertaking. Glad the building will be restored/renovated.
Beautiful building. I’ve been around the Appalachian area for awhile, my wife is from Richlands, Va.
About 1.5 hours from our town, Appalachia, VA.
The Boxes may be Milk Chutes back to when the milk man traveled in the early hours of the morning leaving bottles and wire trays at residences throughout towns and cities.
Great video. Thanks for the tour. I’m looking forward to watching the progress.
Ive been surrounded by Canadians for far too long. Its refreshing to hear someone pronouce the word "tour" any way other than "two-urrr".
I really do hope that they have enough money for this renovation! Way too many old saveable buildings are being torn down to be replaced with "new & improved" crap! They just don't make anything the way they used to & new stuff isn't built to last! This building, if renovated correctly, could last another hundred years or more❤if it's looked after & cared for!!!
Bless their hearts...LOTS of work to be done..hope they're part owners in a Bank...sorry..I know old buildngs should be saved,but this one..I would tear down...way too much damage.
That’s what TH-cam is for… 😂
That's an amazing building that's been build over and built over. Going to take a lot of work and money to get it back to how it was.
That's a pretty fierce looking hill. Similar to some here in Bristol UK.
Please show us any cool treasures you find. I love that stuff! Thank you for sharing!!
37:29 I was wondering about how recently somebody lived in that last apartment as I noticed the battery operated “Swifter Mop” that sprays cleaner on the floor and those are a *very* modern product. We currently have one in our house and we likely purchased that in 2018 or 2019. 😂
That lowest decorative section of brick work is called a "soldier course" If you can imagine soldiers all standing shoulder to shoulder upright all in a line. Have a look again.
Thank you!
Certainly a unique building. Best wishes on your big project.
Water issues need to be addressed foremost before it deteriorates your building. Re-tar or address the roof. A tiny crack can take down a huge building. Y'all have a great adventure ahead of you. You seem like great folks, - Ken in Rome, GA.
"before it deteriorates your building" 🤣, i guess the building has been deteriorated since a few decades already, it is very far gone.
Kudos, to you guys for saving this building. Please post more videos on your progress. I have no doubt that your channel will grow.
More building shots, please
Subscribed. This is going to be a serious project. For future videos slow that camera down. Steady the handheld light in the areas you are showcasing. I realize for most of the gut you won't have running electric to much of the building. Appreciate you chose to save this building! Best to you in renovations. Look forward to following the progress. I sure hope you can have a shoot from the top to a rollback dumpster on the main street.
Nope, not allowed to put the dumpster on Main Street, so our crew is hauling everything out in loads by hand!
I attended Ohio University which is in southern Ohio, in Athens Ohio. I rented suites in many buildings that were built in the late 1890s and early 1900s. In fact your building resembles many of the old buildings that are standing to this day. Athens Ohio is in the foothills of Appalachia. The town is very hilly. Ohio University is the only reason the town is still vibrant, and reasonably well taken care of. The streets are all exposed pavers.
Go Bobcats! I grew up at 165 N. Congress!
@@SillyPutty3700 Yeah, boy! I was there from 1972- 1976,.....I lived on the East Green, dorms Bush Hall and another, i forget the name, now. (maybe Read Hall) Then rented a suite in a 4 story newer apartment,....which may not exist anymore, called Lake View Apts. Then i rented a place on Court Street, in an ancient hotel converted to apartments,...Probably built in the late 1800's. Maybe it was once called the Athens Motel,....My college chums bought land outside of town in the Guysville /Stewart cities. Loved the lush green rolling hills, backroads the snaked their way through the backwoods. In 1972, parts of Athens felt like it was still living in the 1950s & early 60s. Old 1950s' wrecked and rusting cars, were hidden in the underbrush. Lots of abandoned farm houses to explore. The South Green river had already be re-routed,...but it still flooded it's banks from time to time. South green had elevated walkways. Lots of good times were had.
That's such a cool building. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I wonder if the small cutouts on the top floor are milk doors?
Wow, what a challenging project you've taken on.
Unless you are prepared to spend well into 7 figures on this building, you will have to completely gut the structure and start over. You may be able to rescue some of the wood work and such, but there's just not much left to rescue.
I subscribed and look forward to following your progress.
Great. I hope that you can document. the renovation in one or two youtube videos and post. Would be interesting to follow the work.
Watched the whole video very cool thanks
Nice building. I would wonder if one of those phone stations was a dumb waiter. To move produce upstairs? I also love those old steps, as short of rise you can. Much better for walking.
WOW! That is a lot of work for you! It is wild-looking! I would estimate 250 million+ in repairs! Wow!
I enjoyed this, especially the explanation from the commentators
Wow that could be an awesome building but that looks like a huge investment. Good luck, Id love to see the final product.
Awesome, thank you for sharing this is excellent!!
Thats going to be quite the project! Good luck👍
The boxes that you thought might be for telephones might have been for deliveries so if the homeowner was not there it could be popped through the hatch.
correct, they were for milk bottles.
So cool. Have fun on that one.
IDK if I missed it but are planing to keep the building as apartments with a store in front or is there going to be another purpose?
Love it, she will learn what she looking at to describe...enjoy the project!
Radiator heat is the best. I will be following your progress!❤
Consider checking 1930 to 1990 census to identify former residents. Perhaps some information could give additional clues to its past. Good luck.
32:42 I’d bet those little panels were for ice deliveries directly into the “Ice Boxes” in each unit. Given where the fridge is sitting and that they latch from inside the unit, that would be my guess. 😮
I hope you give updates on the restoration.
WHERE is the building?? That would be nice to know from the start
The actual town of Appalachia, VA. The only Appalachia IN Appalachia, and the ❤️ of Appalachia.
I wonder if those little doors for so called party lines was for like a milk delivery or something seeing how it was in the kitchen area.
They were for the milk bottle delivery.
Boxes may have been for ice delivery with an ice box on the inside.
More likely, it was a milk/bread box. Ice would have to have been put immediately put into the icebox. You can't have ice melting on wood & running down the walls. When I was little, the bread man & milkman rang the bell, but we lived in a house & this is an apartment building, so IDK how they would have done it.
Good luck! Hope you have a ton of money! Looking forward to seeing your progress!
Love the building!
Kudos for your efforts in restoration, as this looks like a Herculean task. I don't see how you could possibly recoup your costs in your region, however.
Little doors in the hallway with latches are milk bottle delivery doors. My old apartment in Hyde Park in Tampa had one. You would put your empties in there and the milkman would replace with fresh full bottles on delivery day. That's what it looks like to me. That's what the ones in my 1920s apartment building were for. I also had a little alcove on the wall where the old phone was.
"Picture Molding" in apts., and that white light shade in apt. #2 is "Mid-Century Modern" 1960s. Slab doors "came in" in the the 60s and 70s. Original doors would be solid 4-panel wooden doors. You are missing mortar between some bricks. The need to be re-pointed (simple) to keep out water and decay. John is correct, those are two hallway "Telephone Boxes". They are early third 0f 1900s and from the depth had "candle Stick" phones with a brass separate ringer bell on the wall beside each one activated by an electricity signal when the (live person) operator plugged the wire for that phone in the switchboard. These were probably 1920s - 1940s. Some had an little shelf below for note paper & pencil and/'or phone number book (even one with 4 or 5 pages, nut these probably were hing on a nail in the wall when you used a hole punch in the upper left binding corner. If they were in a nicer home the bell would be via a built-in speaker in wall below the box. Onw could buy these from Sears and Montgomery-Ward. Later, when the rotary model phones came out, the bell was inside. ( Ig the phone shelf was in a plastered wall - some with a arched top, would be called a "phone niche". )
They were niches for the milk bottles as there was one for each unit. Since they had a latched door on the back in the kitchen. No one would put phones in the halls of an apartment building. They did have those niches in larger houses like you are thinking about, but mostly they were for wealthy people and located near an entryway close to the entrance. I worked in an early 1900 mansion with a phone nich in it, they placed a small figurine of Mary in it.