Great Falls boomed during the 1950s

Link to July 11 Great Falls Tribune article.

Excerpt:   It was a time of growth and progress in what was then Montana's largest city, with a population in 1950 of 39,214 people, which exploded to 55,244 by the 1960 census. The city grew in almost every direction. The housing boom that followed the postwar baby boom accounted for almost one-fourth of the homes built in the city since its founding in 1884.

You could buy a three-bedroom house in Riverview with built-in appliances such as a disposal, washer and dryer, and a carport for $13,750. With $400 down, monthly installments ran $76.04.

Mortgage money was available and payrolls at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Anaconda Co. and area oil fields were steady. Wheat that sold for 77 cents a bushel in 1940 was going for $1.90. Malmstrom's base population was reported to be 5,000 military personnel and 500 civilians early in the decade. The Montana Air National Guard on Gore Hill became the first guard unit in the country to get jet aircraft.

Two Catholic schools — Great Falls Central Catholic High School and St. Joseph's Elementary School — were built, along with five public schools that included two junior highs — West and East — and three elementary schools — Longfellow, Lincoln, and Lewis and Clark.

Great Falls had become a modern city, with 113 miles of paved streets.

With 11 stories, the Country Club Tower Apartments was the tallest building in Montana.

Business Still Blooming For Virg-Ann After 65 Years

Link to June 29 Warren Times Observer article.

Excerpt: The shop was opened in 1945 by business partners Sheldon Johnson and Angelo Dicembre. The two men combined their wives' names, Virginia Johnson and Ann Dicembre, to create the Virg-Ann name. Dicembre later bought out Johnson's share. The shop became a family business with the help of his wife, daughter Judy Dicembre-Ekey and granddaughter Annamarie Dicembre-Miller

Currently, Dicembre-Miller is at the helm of the business. A business run by a third generation descendant is rare.

Rolling Green neighborhood pulls together after slayings

Link to May12 Rockford Register-Star article.

Excerpt:  The Rolling Green subdivision in southeast Rockford is a cluster of modest, working-class homes on gently curving streets that up until a handful of years ago was known only as a well-established neighborhood where generations of families raised their children.

Then came the floods in 2006 and 2007, the infamous back-to-back deluges that left dozens of homeowners awash in bills for foundation work and new furnaces and water heaters.

And now, back-to-back double homicides.

Process of boarding up Hotel Lafayette begins

Link to April 1 Buffalo News article.

Excerpt: The owner of the Hotel Lafayette is removing tenants and boarding up the building today with an eye toward beginning a major rehabilitation this summer.

Developer Rocco Termini said he hopes to begin work on the downtown structure 60 to 90 days after the State Legislature approves changes to New York's relatively new historic tax credit program.

Link to February 19 Buffalo News article.

Excerpt: Boarded-up buildings are common sights in many Buffalo neighborhoods.

But not on Niagara Square, across the street from City Hall.

The board-ups are usually burned out homes or decaying structures — not one of downtown's most recognizable icons.

Work crews began installing plywood sheets over windows on the first floor of the recently mothballed Statler Towers on Friday. Some pedestrians did double takes as crews hauled large panels of wood from a nearby truck and proceeded to board up the facade.

"It looks pretty tacky," said Sharon Hunter. "It's all very sad."

Canonsburg, PA: Chocolate Magnates Sweeten Library Pot

Link to January 14 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report, "Ground broken for long-awaited public library in Canonsburg".

Excerpt: Warm hearts bested freezing temperatures and a half-foot of snow as two dozen braved the elements Friday to attend the groundbreaking for a $5 million Canonsburg library, slated to open in early 2011.

The proposed two-story building at Jefferson Avenue and Murdock Street has been on the planning board for at least 10 years, after the library board decided a new facility was needed to replace the crowded one in the borough building on East Pike Street.

But it wasn't until Canonsburg chocolate magnates Frank and Athena Sarris [OMG, a peanut butter meltaway pie!] donated $1.5 million for the library's construction that the project picked up steam. Another $1 million earmarked by the state for construction plus an additional $100,000 in state money for land acquisition boosted the momentum to realizing the library board's long-sought goal.

Statler is ‘dead building,’ city panel told

Link to February 2 Buffalo News report.

Excerpt: The Statler Towers is a “dead building” that has a negative market value, a lawyer told Buffalo’s assessment review panel at a hearing Monday in City Hall.

Attorney Peter Allen Weinmann warned that if the city refuses to dramatically slash the assessed value of the Delaware Avenue building, it could further hinder efforts to develop the empty complex that towers over Niagara Square.

“The building is a shell — a ghost of its . . . past,” Weinmann told the Board of Assessment Review, a five-member panel of citizen volunteers that considers assessment challenges.

The Wolfgang & Weinmann law firm submitted documents urging the city to assign a negative value of nearly $12.2 million to the Statler. The 18-story landmark is currently assessed at $3.5 million.