Conneaut History & Genealogy - Harrington Block

HARRINGTON BLOCK
built 1901

End of an Era....

DAY ONE

These pages contain the demolition pictures from start to finish. I am sure that there will be some people seeing the destruction of rooms that have a lot of meaningful memories.

I have included the pictures as "thumbnail" pictures for you to click on to see more detail of each picture. This way the page will load faster and you can see the larger version of each picture.

The first picture is where my husband and I arrived there. The demolition crew had already started on the West end of the third floor.

1.	2.	3.	4.	5.
6.	7.	8.	9.	10.
11.	12.	13.	14.	15.
16.	17.	18.	19.	20.
21.	22.	23.	24.	25.
26.	27.	28.	29.	30.
31.	32.	THE END OF DAY ONE
DAY TWO Day Two started with the operator of the tractor on the left sorting out the metal for recycling. The operator on the right in the yellow tractor was using all the wood, bricks, etc. to build up a pile for him to drive up on so he could reach the upper levels of the building easier. As the operator of the yellow machine got nearer to the end of the demolition, the eastern wall was swaying somewhat and he meticulously picked off the bricks with the big bucket as if he was picking them off with his own hand. It was truly amazing how he handled that machine!!
33.	34.	35.	36.	37.
38.	39.	40.	41.	42.
43.	44.	45.	46.	47.
48.	49.	50.	51.	52.
53.	54.	55.	56.	57.
58.	59.	60.	61.	62.
63.	64.	65.	67.	68.
69.	70.	71.	72.	73.
74.	75.	76.	77.	78.
79.	80.	81.	82.	83.
84.	85.	86.	87.	88.
89.	90.	91.	92.	93.
94.	95.	When the land is cleared, I will add a picture as it looks at that time.

AGAIN........ The BEGINNING of the END of a building that housed many stories that were a part of this century building. One woman said her mother was born in this building while another man, Mr. Bill Tucker, said his grandmother passed away in her bedroom on the second floor. His family owned the building from 1945 to 1974 when it was sold to Wilford Snyder and is wife. It was later sold to a Mr. Harris who was incarcerated shortly after and had no interest in keeping up the building at any means. It quickly deteriorated due to weather and lack of heat in the cold weather.
     As the building was named the Harrington Block - 1901. It was 109 years old at the time of demolition.
     In the older days, at the Western end of the 1st floor was Ashtabula Auto Parts. In the middle section was the Frozen Food Locker where people could store their meat in lockers when they had animals butchered and there was too much to put in their own freezers at home. In the Eastern end was Star Beverage which was also Star Laundry. The laundry wasn't actually done there, it was taken to a place in Erie, Pennsylvania to be cleaned and then brought back to Conneaut. I remember Will's wife, Joyce having an antique shop in the lower eastern store where she refinished many items.
     Next door in the vacant lot was Miltner's Bakery which was later Marge's Bakery. Next to that the small building was ran by one of the Miltner boys and he sold kits for the boats that were in the hydro-planing races down in Conneaut Harbor.
     In the beginning, this was a splendid building with wonderful built in cupboards and woodwork including the old fashioned 'pocket' doors.
     The mid-section of the front of the building was covered in ornate metal and to my amazement the lettering for "HARRINGTON BLOCK 1901" were made of wood. Amazingly there appeared to be no damage to them from age. Most of it will be housed at the Conneaut Area Historical Museum. It was carried away by Bert Drennen who anxiously watched as it was pulled from the building, he, being afraid that it would not survive the wrecking bucket.

And all that is left at THE END.....

The remaining pieces of the Harrington Block are being carried away by
Bert Drennen for preservation by the
Conneaut Area Historical Society.

NOTE: Please excuse any grammatical errors on this page as I am not much at writing stories.
I figure that as long as I get my point across, that is what really matters.
If you have any stories to add to this, please contact me by clicking on my name here...
Sharon Wick

< CLICK HERE FOR SOME SHORT MOVIE CLIPS OF DEMOLITION >

< CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO PAGE ONE OF THIS ARTICLE >

BACK TO
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONNEAUT HISTORY & GENEALOGY