Much like any town, Westerville Ohio prides itself on its history. Westerville was once known as the “driest town in the nation”, coined after the start of Prohibition in the twenties; which originated from Westerville. Even since prohibition has ended, there are only a handful of bars in historic uptown Westerville. Down State street, past there is an armory that has been decommissioned for quite some time. The structure was created in 1946, just a year after World War II ended. The building was used for years storing munitions and other various military utilities up until 1984 when it was decommissioned from service. This building has stood for many years and will stand for many more to come. It currently lies abandoned. Though it was constructed during a time of peace, this facility acted as a safeguard for Westerville as much as it was for Columbus if any action were to happen during the Cold War.

While trying to research this building, there is no recollection of the armory, even with the unlimited information of the internet. The history of this building was derived from Westerville’s public library with the help of a studied librarian. The information on this building is much like its perception among today’s inhabitants of Westerville, hidden.

Back in its prime this place served as a place of safety from any danger. Not too far from the armory is the Westerville police station which also serves to protect the people. The Armory should be revived as a federal office of the sort. This use of the building would maximize the space that it is allotted. The parking for the offices is gated off and behind the armory which offers security to the vehicles. The buildings architecture is very serious and looks like it has been there for ages. This is a good attribute because it characteristically represents the U.S. government being a strong and ever-lasting democracy. This building would be commissioned by the federal government for the government, and would bring jobs to Westerville.

-Justin Nguyen

The Banana Peel was a small, local, and community -based sandwich and desert restaurant in small town New Concord, Ohio. It was built in the early 2000’s and had been serving loyal community members and visitors of the area until it was closed down in October of 2015 due to a heartbreaking lack of business.

The Banana Peel gave me my first job. I was just 16 years old coming into a new reality of working for myself and my high-maintenance lifestyle. I was offered a position as a server nearly immediately. We served lunch, dinner, and a full-blown Velvet ice cream selection. Our unique little restaurant had just 8 black tables and an 8 seat bar. The floors were a diner inspired black and white tile. The walls were painted a calming cream and covered in college pendants from around Ohio, John Glenn school artifacts such as old jerseys and helmets, and Ohio State memorabilia. It is safe to say that my beloved bosses truly appreciated and honored our community, while implementing it into their restaurant.

The Banana Peel is worth saving because it is where our community came together. It was the only eat-in restaurant in New Concord. Just in my short time serving there I met members of my community that I became so extremely close with. For instance, The Banana Peel proudly served Ron Vessles, a highly respected New Concord resident of nearly 80 years, on a regular basis. Mr. Vessles and I acquired a once-in-a-lifetime relationship. Being a cheerleader for John Glenn for many years gave me a responsibility of doing a senior athlete scrapbook for every season. While I enjoyed doing this for my peers as they moved on to the next stage in their life, it became a quit time consuming task. Mr. Vessles helped me with that! He would personally bring in newspaper articles from all of the surrounding newspapers into the high school office in a Ziploc bag with my name on it every Wednesday. He knew who my assigned athlete was and would cut out the articles that would fit appropriately. That’s just one example of the community we have in New Concord. I also met so many other respected community members through my serving job at The Banana Peel.

Funding The Banana Peel would be easy with proper advertisement and communication throughout the area due to New Concord’s high support within the community. A highly influential factor in The Banana Peel closing was its location. It was just a mile off the interstate on Route 93. If travelers knew about the relaxing restaurant, chances are they would stop for a quick lunch and desert. If The Banana Peel could raise money for a spot on the closest billboard, I am positive that business would have been booming. To raise money for a billboard, I would suggest a Buffalo Wild Wings or Chipotle fundraisers where 25%-50% of sales goes towards to the organization. A spot on a billboard through Barnes Advertising ranges from $190-$300. That’s only 150 sales! Also for funding, I would suggest reaching out to community members for donations and offering a spot for their family name or business on a sign inside the restaurant. Our community is really heavy in supporting by means of donation. For instance, our basketball and cheerleading Disney tournament trip was completely funded by our community… within less than a week! If efforts like these mentioned were made sooner, I’m positive The Banana Peel would still be living in New Concord.

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This Old Victorian style home is located in Lancaster Oh and should be saved by the historical society to ensure its preservation. This building is located at 632 North Broad Street and is currently a multi-family house that is vacant.

This building was built in 1900 and was originally used as the first hospital of Lancaster. Even though the amount of time this building was a hospital is uncertain,  it is safe to say that it was during the early 1900’s that this was a hospital. There was an addition added to this house in the late 1900’s but that addition is located in the back and is small in proportion to the original building. The architecture of this building can be described as Victorian with the structure built using brick.

This building should be preserved just because of the fact that it was the first hospital in Lancaster. Members of the community would feel great satisfaction knowing that this building was used as a hospital to possibly their ancestors. This building has major issues including chipped brick and old paint that should be taken care of to make the building more aesthetically pleasing.

The funding for this building should come from an historical tax credit so that it can be preserved by the historical society. Getting this historical tax credit should not be a problem because of the history of the building and the rehabilitation would not be that expensive compared to other buildings.

The Michigan Central Station-Kailyn Gullatt

(Fig 1)

Michigan Central Station is located in Detroit,Michigan. When Detroit was still known as Motor City ,and bankruptcy was far from concern, the train station functioned to bring thousands through cross city transport. As the desire to live in Detroit and the desire to use trains declined, the Michigan Central Station’s necessity declined. The building has been abandoned since 1988,but has served as a landmark for Detroit in various films and its architecture,(see Fig 2), has remained astounding

This Detroit Landmark should be saved because it’s still generating revenue in its decrepit state and maybe because of it.This means the building is unlikely to be torn down by the owners ,but vacant buildings are often a source for crime. With Detroit’s notoriously high crime rate leaving the building open is not an appealing option for the city. Michigan Central Station is an emblem for Detroit’s peak as the motor city and should be preserved as a piece of history.

(Fig 2)

The main issue with this Detroit building is that a full restoration  is expected to cost around a hundred million dollars. There have been multiple plans to restore this structure ,but due to lack of funding or commitment the building has not found new utilization. The Moroun family that owns the building replaced the windows in 2015 and since then no plans to progress have been released.

With the whole building costing so much to rebuild, the best option would be to do something that would not require a total restoration to generate money. If some of the bottom floor was restored it could be turned into an market for artists and farmers. This would leave an option to temporarily close when enough money is generated to cover a fuller restoration. At that point there would be an option to turn the space into a multi-floor shopping mall,apartment/retail, ,or even a wedding venue. Funding could be provided by potential vendors and communities of farmer markets. The Detroit Community Markets or even Detroit’s Urban Craft Fair may be able to assist in restoration in return for the space.

In a small town called Sunbury Ohio there is a building that sits empty, and partly destroyed.  When someone walks by this building they don’t appreciate that this building was once a thriving factory that provided jobs and other benefits to the community.  This old building is the former Nestle Factory, and it plays a critical role in the history of the small town of Sunbury.

The factory was built in the late 1800’s and sold to the Nestle company in 1919.  Nestle used this factory to create butter, cheese, and evaporated milk.  The factory would eventually become known for a specialty product it made, instant coffee and instant tea.  The factory was actually the first Nestle factory to make an instant tea product known as Nestea, a product still sold today.  The factory continued it’s growth, including a 27 million five story addition in 1981, to perform an additional function of decaffeinating coffee beans.  However the good times would come to an end.  In 1993 the factory closed it’s doors as Nestle deemed their decaff coffee was no longer popular.  With the closing of the factory, Nestle took with it its many jobs it provided for the community and its large income tax for the community.

The factory is now partly torn down  and other than one small steel manufacturing plant, sits empty.  The factory leaving had left a huge hole in the village of Sunbury as many people where now out of a job and many businesses started to suffer.  It took Sunbury a while to recover from this, but from the ashes the phoenix will rise.  Sunbury is now a thriving community once again, and is still expanding.  The addition of an outlet mall, and several new schools, Sunbury’s population and businesses are on the rise.  Yet the factory still sits there like a scar on the community.  But all that can change.

The plot where the factory sits is in a great location.  It’s right by the Sunbury square, which is really the life of Sunbury and its very close to the middle school, high school, and several elementary schools.  An apartment complex built on the lot would make perfect sense.  Sunbury’s current problem is the population continues to expand, and they are running out of homes, an apartment complex would help that problem.  Sunbury also doesn’t have a lot of apartment buildings within the city.  It really only has one, and the rest are houses that are probably out of many peoples price range who might want to move to Sunbury.  An apartment complex would bring more teachers, police, firefighters, and many other crucial jobs that are necessary for a growing community.  With the addition of new businesses to Sunbury, finding the funds for the creation of this building wouldn’t be difficult.  The building will need fixed up a lot too, as many of it fell apart as it was not properly maintained.

An apartment complex on this location would also be somewhat poetic.  The disfigured empty factory is a painful reminder of the rough stretch Sunbury had when it closed its doors.  Especially it being so recent that many adult residents of the town remember the time when it used to be open.  But Sunbury bounced back and building this apartment complex would show how far the town and community have come since then, and showcase that Midwesterner never die spirit that Sunbury has.

Source: http://bigwalnuthistory.org/Local_History/Creameries/Nestles/Nestle.htm