Northwest Savings Plans

Warren Times-Observer, 11/10/2011.

Excerpt: Northwest announced earlier this month that it had purchased the Diamond Block, also known as the Dicembre Building, along Pennsylvania Avenue, and the former Knights of Columbus Building along Second Avenue and planned to tear those buildings down and put up a new building to accommodate the company's growing office space needs.

The Diamond Block building would torn down and initially used as a staging area for construction of the new building along Second Avenue. Later, that space would become an outdoor dining area for employees and a separate public green space.

The ideas for a park were generally well-received. Some in the audience suggested making it child-friendly and including aspects of the region's Iroquois heritage.

Historical concerns

Chase Putnam asked that the Second Avenue building be remembered as the Woodward Building, with a theater and a ballroom, not as the Knights of Columbus building.

That building dates from 1910 and was built by an "ambitious businessman," he said. The Diamond Block dates to the 1870s or 1880s.

He also said that the Diamond Block is "one of the best-preserved business blocks in town. That's a beautiful building."

"We're seeing two more wonderful institutions come down," he said. However, "It hurts me more to see the front of the building standing with nothing behind it."