Historic buildings to be assessed in Findlay

FINDLAY — Two historic buildings have been selected for preservation assessments in May. And the Hancock Historical Museum is now taking nominations to add another three structures to the list. Curator and archivist Joy Bennett said she already has permission to assess the Hancock County Probate Court building at 209 W. Main Cross St., and the city's first fire station at North Main and Cherry streets. The probate court structure was built in 1867 although it has had many additions that have various dates attached, said Bennett. Originally it was home to the First Congregational Church of Findlay, then several other churches until 1909 when Findlay Publishing purchased the building. In 1976, the Hancock County sheriff moved his offices in until the new justice center opened. It's been serving as the county's probate and juvenile court since 1990. The fire station may have been built in 1877 or 1878, according to newspaper articles Bennett found. It was later expanded in the 1910s to accommodate larger equipment. The preservation assessment workshops are conducted by Heritage Ohio. Based in Columbus, the organization promotes economic growth through the preservation and revitalization of downtowns and neighborhoods across Ohio. Heritage Ohio is the coordinating agency for the Ohio Main Street Program and is the designated statewide Ohio preservation partner with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Bennett said she first heard about Heritage Ohio and the assessments after the Tiffin Seneca Economic Partnership/Downtown Tiffin brought them to their city last year. An organization has to be the host, whether it's a business or the chamber or council or a nonprofit like the museum, she said. There's also a sponsorship fee. Once that's complete, they will inspect up to five properties. David Mertz, former director of Belmont College's renowned Building Preservation/Restoration program, will conduct one-on-one assessments with building owners pre-selected by the museum. He will evaluate current conditions of each owner's building and provide advice to address maintenance issues, active deterioration or future trouble spots. "They'll do an assessment of the building identifying basically common issues that happen in old buildings, things to look out for, how to go about it," Bennett explained. "Then they'll provide some information on how to fix it or who to contact to fix it like reputable companies." Bennett said she plans to go along for the assessments. "All of that is private," she said. "Basically the museum will get to hear about it because we're sponsoring it, and the owner of the property will get that assessment. It will not be published anywhere publicly so if anybody's worried they'll by shamed for neglect of their building or something like that, that will not happen. Along with the probate court building and the former fire department, the museum can add three more buildings. "And we are hoping that members of the public would be interested, preferably in downtown Findlay. It can be a business. It could be a house. I think it's just to try and keep it close for assessment purposes because they're only here doing that for a day," said Bennett. If people have a building they would like to have assessed, permission is needed from the owner. "Even if it gets nominated by somebody, we still have to have the owner of the building be fine with us going through and obviously let us in and do the walk through with us. We can't just pick a public building and do an assessment," Bennett said. She said a building is now considered historic if it was built by 1975. "So it doesn't have to be a building built in the 1880s. It could have been built in the 1950s," she said. The night before the assessments, a workshop will be held at the museum, 422 W. Sandusky St. The lecture, "Pay Me Now or Pay Me 'much more' Later," is free and open to the public. No reservations are needed, but seating is limited. The lecture begins at 6 p.m. May 5. "They'll talk about historic preservation and they'll kind of get into, oh, if you have a historic building, you want to watch out for this, you want to watch out for that," said Bennett. She said it's recommended that the owners of the properties selected attend the lecture. Mertz will speak on building pathology and common issues that plague old and historic buildings. From the basics of being a good steward and planning a maintenance routine to spotting water infiltration and masonry issues, he will instruct building owners on carefully evaluating little problems now before they have the chance to become big problems in the future. Heritage Ohio staff will follow up on any recommendations or contacts provided during the assessment to insure building owners have clear steps to address priority actions. "We would like to provide this as a service to the public and to celebrate Preservation Month by helping people preserve historic building because we are all about historic preservation," she said. Nominations are due by April 25. Email Bennett at jbennett@hancockhistoricalmuseum.org, contact her through the Facebook or the website, or call the museum at 419-423-4433.