Buildings represent Butler's heyday
A piece of Butler's history was damaged — irrevocably to some extent — by a weekend fire in the city's downtown.
Local historian Bill May was in mourning following the blaze Saturday morning that struck the Sir Speedy printing shop building on the 200 block of South Main Street.
The more than 100-year-old building was severely damaged, authorities said.
Two other century-old-plus buildings on either side, housing Reclamation Brewing and Edward Jones financial investments, also suffered water and/or smoke damage.
“What those buildings represent is really the heyday of the city of Butler,” May said, “when Butler was incredibly prosperous from the industries coming in with Pullman Standard.”
The fate of the buildings has not been determined, said Chris Switala, chief of the Butler Fire Department. That decision will come from the city's code enforcement office.
But the Sir Speedy building sustained severe structural damage in the fire.
George Schneck built the three-story structure in 1900/1901, May said. Schenck was also the builder of St. Paul's Church in Butler. He also built the addition to the Butler County Courthouse and the Carnegie Library in Grove City.
He built the structure on South Main Street for Richard Hughes, a well-to-do barber and Civil War veteran.
“At the time period,” May said, “Butler was growing and really flourishing.”The property was built for Hughes as an “investment property,” May said, allowing him to have his own store on the first floor, other stores on the second floor and apartments on the top floor.“You can see there's sophistication to that building,” May said, noting the ornate corniced roofline. It also was one of the first three-story brick commercial buildings in the city's downtown.While not certain, May speculated that building, as well as the Reclamation Brewing building, may have been designed by F.J. Porter, a premier architect at that time.Porter designed other buildings in Butler including the Troutman Mansion, First Methodist Church and the Majestic Theatre.Schneck also constructed the three-story Reclamation building, which is on the left of the Sir Speedy building, May said. It was built in 1899 for Dr. Orlando Kline Waldron, a dentist, oil operator and large landholder in Butler.That building, too, is known for its sophistication, including a circular window in the center of the third floor and a center window with stonework and a keystone on the second floor.The two-story Edward Jones building, to the right of Sir Speedy, was built in 1890 for J.F. Balph to house his drugstore, May said. He did not know the builder.Balph in 1902 sold the building to the Guarantee Trust and Deposit Company. It underwent a bit of a face-lift.“Banks at the time wanted to show strength, that they were substantial institutions that could be trusted,” May said. “So they redid this building with beautiful stonework which I would categorize as kind of beaux-arts architecture.”That work included triangular pediments above the windows and a stone carving almost to the roof by the cornice work.Trooper DuWayne Baird, a state police deputy fire marshal, who is investigating the fire, also was struck by the beauty of all three buildings.“They have the nice brick facades, the parapets, the cocklofts, all that interesting building construction from way back,” he said. “There's a lot of history in those buildings. It's a shame what happened.”May doesn't know what is going to become of any of the buildings. He said structural safety comes first.“But if these buildings can be safely preserved, I think that's what is best for Butler,” he said. “One of the tenets of trying to have a successful downtown is to made it architecturally interesting. All these buildings meet that criteria.”
