Vic Bradshaw reported on the fate of the Community Food Store, 319-321 S. Kent St.:
. . . Hobbs’s response provides an answer to why the Community Food Store building is still standing – money to rebuild on the site could not be obtained. The structure, at Kent and Cecil streets, could be gone by year’s end, however. The City Council has begun action to declare it blighted and tear it down.
Read the full article at the Winchester Star (login required).
PHW representatives toured the building prior to the public hearing for demolition. While the building tells a key story in the development and history of the neighborhood, the cost of the necessary stabilization made the project financially unfeasible. PHW did not oppose the demolition of the structure given that the state of neglect and compromised structural integrity would make the project financially unfeasible.
The fate of the Community Food Store, like Ruth’s Tea Room before it, is a sobering reminder that important pieces of history may become empty lots when faced against demolition by neglect.
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