NORWICH – All indications lead downtown business owners Scott and Anna McLaughlin to believe that there’s old brick under the aluminum siding covering the front of their downtown department store.
Their aim is to uncover it.
The store’s owners plan to take off the 1960s era metal this summer, with assistance from a $200,000 state matching grant program earmarked for facade improvement. McLaughlin said contractors have already been selected for the estimated $400,000 restoration project. Afterward, depending upon its condition, a separate brick renovation project could follow.
Anna McLaughlin said she hopes the move will make the corner of Broad Street and American Avenue more historic and in keeping with the other brick facades already restored downtown.
“I’ve always had an interest in the history of the building,” she said. “Pat Scott (former City of Norwich Historian) gave us a 1930s era photograph that showed it as it was originally when it was Montgomery Ward’s. Scott’s family bought the building back in 1975 when it was already sided. We are excited to see what remains of the original windows and brickwork under there.”
“We hope to try to have it look as close to the original building as possible,” she said.
City planning officials are currently submitting required paperwork to the New York state Office of State Historical Preservation. City planning consultant Todd Dreyer said he anticipated that the agency would “look favorably upon the project.”
According to City of Norwich Mayor Joseph P. Maiurano, other building facade and sidewalk improvements are planned for the business district this summer. “There’s a big push to fix the sidewalks,” he said, referring to the rapidly deteriorating inlay bluestone installed two years ago. The changes are intended to make the city more attractive to businesses and shoppers.
The mayor said he approached the McLaughlins about leasing their parking lot behind the store and adjacent to the city’s lot in turn for paving, stripping and policing it. An agreement that suggests leasing the lot to the city for $1 annually is currently in the hands of the city’s attorney.
McLaughlin said her husband’s family has always believed that people spend time shopping at different stores when they come to town. “We want to be good business partners with everybody downtown and with the city. ... We have always agreed that it is best for downtown to open our lot up to all parking,” she said. “And it badly needs repairing, especially because so many people use it in the summer, like Gus Macker fans.”
Maiurano said the refurbished city parking lot would be enhanced even further when American Avenue is paved and curbs installed there as planned in the summer of 2008. “We want to provide more and better parking for the business community,” he said.