Firefighters battle a large blaze at a three-story building on Center Avenue in Butler Sunday morning. The building had been home to a combination of apartments on its second and third floors and a diner on the ground floor. Butler officials plan to immediately tear down the more-than century-old building, authorities said.
A Center Avenue building that was gutted by fire on Sunday had a long history as a hub of local business.
According to Butler County Assessment records, a house existed on the site as far back as 1850, but the commercial structure was built in 1890.
The history of the three-story building at 339 Center Ave. — which had been home to a combination of apartments on its second and third floors and a diner on its ground floor — began quietly near the beginning of last century. But it would soon get front-page attention from the paper. By July 1917 one of its residents — Thomas William Ray — had been drafted into service during World War I, according to the Eagle’s archives.
It wasn’t until 1922 that the building appears to have begun hosting its first business: the A&P store, which appears to have stayed in the building at least through the 1930s.
By the 1940s the building had fallen out of the news again, and it wasn’t until 1951, when Rege Beck’s Furniture Exchange set up shop there for at least a couple of years, that the building appeared in newsprint again.
From the late 1950s — when W.L. Stewart Used Furniture occupied the building’s storefront — until Sunday’s fire the building has been a consistent home to local business.
In 1964 Carrie’s Dairy, a restaurant and deli, operated out of the building; and in December 1966, Kinsely Dairy Store held its grand opening in the building’s storefront, and went on to do business there until at least 1971.
In 1975 Griffith’s Dairy was in the building, and in September 1982 another grand opening — this one for Moren’s South Side Restaurant, graced the building’s first floor. The restaurant would operate through the late 1980s at least.
The next occupant seems to have been Linda’s South Side Restaurant, which began running help wanted adds in July 1991, and remained in business until 2011. The next year it was briefly replaced by a restaurant called The Diner, and in 2013 the S & S Diner replaced it.
Finally, that restaurant was replaced by Hutch’s Diner, which was in operation when the fire began and ultimately destroyed much of the building.
