Old, storied buildings to undergo renovations

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Two sisters are preserving a part of Ohio's past.

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

LISBON — The oldest brick building in Ohio is being renovated to help preserve the village's heritage.

The Jacob Picking building, constructed in 1803, is now surrounded by scaffolding three floors high and partially wrapped in plastic.

Renee Lewis of New York City, and her sister, Stevie Halverstadt of Lisbon, who has been promoting preservation in the village, are working on the project.

Lewis, who makes jewelry, joked that she is financing the project, "because I think I am insane."

Lewis and Halverstadt were raised in Salem, where restoration of older buildings is common.

"Lisbon is a fabulous little town," said Lewis. "This type of town doesn't exist in America any more."

Halverstadt said that Heritage Ohio, which works with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has given the building its designation as the oldest brick structure in the state.

There are some 176 structures in the village's National Historic District, according to Halverstadt.

Until mid-November, Chris Cowan of Cowan Masonry of East Liverpool, will be putting a chemical stripper on the layers of red paint on the brick building. The stripper is covered with paper, which is eventually peeled away and bagged. Then the area is washed with water at low pressure to preserve the old bricks.

The inside of the building also has been cleared.

Revealing secrets

Halverstadt said, "By peeling away, all the secrets are revealed."

Those secrets include round marks on the floor of the building from the counter seats at the first soda fountain in Ohio that Halverstadt said was brought from Baltimore to Lisbon by A.J. Blocksom in the 1840s. The building also has been a hotel, a store, offices, and the meeting place for a fraternal organization.

The inner walls are a mixture of plaster and horse hair. Halverstadt said they would be repaired with plaster and some sort of synthetic to replicate the horse hair.

Workers removed an addition from the back of the building but saved the wood for reuse. That revealed the doors from the original hotel rooms. It also opened a courtyard at the back of the building. Halverstadt said that while motion pictures were being shown in a nearby structure, dramas were performed in the courtyard.

Halverstadt has a copy of an 1811 drawing that shows the village square. A courthouse was on the northwest quadrant of the square, which today is a landscaped area. The drawing shows details of other old buildings that are still standing around the square.

The drawing shows the southwest corner of the square as open land. Halverstadt said the artist probably drew the painting from the brick building when it was a hotel.

The courthouse is now on the southwest quadrant of the square. County commissioners last week approved $2.7 million in courthouse renovations, including a new roof.

Halverstadt said that about $500,000 will go into the exterior work of the former hotel.

That includes the work of Mark Janowiak of Full Spectrum Painting in Salem. So far he has repaired 36 old windows and will have to make five or six more. The windows, he said, are held together with wooden pegs.

The sisters' original plan was to create a bed and breakfast for people who want to enjoy Lisbon and its attractions, which include the Little Beaver Creek Greenway Trail that ends in Lisbon.

Other renovations

County Engineer Bert Dawson has obtained grants to renovate the old train station in Lisbon as a staging area for the trail. Work is expected to begin on the station later this year.

Near the station will be a canoe livery on Little Beaver Creek. Dawson said the projects will total about $1.2 million.

Lewis and Halverstadt say they are now thinking of finishing the exterior of the old hotel and letting a purchaser finish the interior. A law firm has indicated interest in using the building as an office, Halverstadt said. That would be fitting because Edwin M. Stanton, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War, had his law practice in a tiny office in the building.

And in the basement of the building is a bricked up tunnel that ran under the street — Lincoln Way — to what was once a hotel. Halverstadt said it is one of many tunnels in the village that were part of the Underground Railroad that ferried slaves to freedom.

Lewis said the renovation will move forward slowly in part because of a clash between the artistic vision for the building and building codes. Lewis said she has obtained antique doors for the building, but state officials want her to put exit safety bars on them.

Mike Hocker, executive director of the Ohio Lincoln Historic Byway, has described the Lisbon village square as "a pearl." He said he's spoken to the village's chamber of commerce about developing its heritage.

wilkinson@vindy.com

Sunday, August 13, 2006