Week of July 13

From Rick High:

The hazardous materials remediation contractor completed his work on Tuesday, July 14. The building (or what’s left of it) has been inspected by the authorities. It is free of asbestos containing materials and we can now proceed with the demolition.

National Grid arrived yesterday and disconnected the power to the FB, another necessary pre-condition to commencing the demolition. The next step is to apply for a demolition permit.

The removal of all the drywall revealed evidence of a smoky fire sometime in the FB’s past. Jean McCrosky remembered it and placed the event somewhere around 1980—it could have been five years sooner or later. The cause, the best anyone could determine, was a “live” cigarette butt caught in a cotton mop during clean up. The mop was put away in the little closet on the left side of the entry hall past the parlor door. Everyone went home and you can guess the rest. There was a lot of smoke damage, though not much damage to the structure. The entire interior of the building had to be cleaned and re-painted—one of four times Jean remembers being part of a Fellowship Building painting crew.

Another artifact of the past was the discovery of a vintage Pepsi can. About 30 years ago a new roof structure was built over a portion of the existing FB roof. The intent was to solve a persistent leaking problem caused by the original design of the roof. When the outer roof was removed to get at the asbestos, a Pepsi can was discovered sitting on top of the old roof where it had been left by the contractor. The can says “Catch that Pepsi spirit” which was Pepsi’s ad campaign from 1978 to 1981. (Right after “Have a Pepsi Day” and just preceding “Pepsi’s Got Your Taste For Life!”).

Also quite evident was the significant termite and carpenter ant damage to the building’s structure. It was a strong reminder as to why we were undertaking the demolition and the urgency of getting the project started.

The next mystery to be solved is whether or not an underground fuel oil tank remains behind the building. We should know before the week is out.