The gap that will be left from demolition work in the heart of downtown Hopkinsville could be widening after a structural engineer identified problems with a third building.
The former Boyd’s Boutique & Bridal at 804 S. Main St. was not part of the emergency declaration Hopkinsville City Council approved on Feb. 16, which cleared the way to raze two other buildings. But after a contractor began demolishing Lee’s Game Room at 806 S. Main St., problems with the Boyd building were observed. The two properties shared a common wall.
Structural engineer Kelly Gardner said he “observed serious structural deficiencies” in the wall that were “pre-existing” conditions to the demolition work on the adjacent property.
“These deficiencies include missing mortar from brick joints (typical of old brick masonry when the lime mortar breaks down to dust over time), weakened/loose mortar, broken brick, cracked brick, dislocated brick and insufficient bearing of wood floor joists,” he wrote in a report submitted Tuesday to city officials.
Gardner said the wall is an “imminent danger” and could collapse. The wall is beyond repair, he said.
The report outlined three options: repair the wall “in its entirety,” construct a new wall outside the existing wall or demolish the whole building.
Property owner Kent Boyd told Hoptown Chronicle on Tuesday that he didn’t know yet what he would do, but he suggested cost would be a factor. He said he will make a decision this week.
Boyd’s wife, Karen Boyd, ran the boutique, which was the last business in the building. They bought the property in 2000. The store closed in 2017. Constructed in the 1880s, the building was home to Dan Metzler’s clothing store for men in the 1950s.
Gardner said the demolition work left joist pockets, or voids, in the common brick wall between 804 and 806 S. Main St. The pockets are places where Lee’s Game Room framing was removed during demolition.
If the pockets in the wall were the only problem, they could be filled with repair bricks, but that is not an option because of the wall’s overall condition, according to Gardner’s report. “The base of the wall, which is the most heavily loaded portion of the wall, has severe deficiencies,” he wrote.
Gardner’s report also lists potential impact to a fourth structure, the Cornerstone Information Systems building on the opposite side of the Boyd building. There are steel rods spaced along the north wall of the Boyd building adjacent to Cornerstone.
“… any work or changes made to the building at 804 S. Main must take into consideration the potential impacts on the building at 802 S. Main [Cornerstone] because of these rods,” Gardner wrote.
As a crew was completing demolition of Lee’s Game Room, Christian Circuit Judge Andrew Self was considering a motion for a temporary injunction to stop demolition of Holland Opera House at 810-812 St. Main St. The opera house is the other property city council voted two weeks ago to raze.
The Hopkinsville Fire Department condemned the properties after Gardner inspected the buildings on Jan. 24. He wrote in reports to the city that the two buildings had “severe structural issues” and should be “demolished immediately.”
Lawyers for the city and for opera house owner Bobo Cravens (through his son, Alfred Cravens, who has power of attorney for his father) were in court Friday for a hearing to consider attorney Ken Humphries’ motion seeking to halt the demolition.
The family previously declined to enter into a legal agreement that city officials said would protect the owners from an obligation to pay the city for the demolition — if they signed over the property deed. The owners of Lee’s Game Room accepted the agreement for their property.
Humphries said the agreement “was in essence an ultimatum” — one of several issues he raised. He also questioned the amount the city is paying East Construction Co. ($388,000) for demolition of Lee’s Game Room and the opera house. He said the property owners should be given time to hire their own demolition contractor at a lower rate.
The court agreed to give Humphries time to have another engineer inspect the building. However, after the second engineer went through the building, the demolition work resumed.
Self denied the motion for a restraining order. The judge’s decision, filed in an order Tuesday, said the motion was “procedurally deficient.” He ruled the property was “in violation of the City’s ordinances and presents an imminent danger and a threat to public health, safety and welfare of the public.”
Fire Chief Steve Futrell said Monday that the demolition work on the opera house was going somewhat slower because of two factors — gusting winds and a concern that the south wall of the building might topple into a narrow alley and hit the Phoenix building.
Bobo Cravens also owns the Phoenix building, which the city deemed unsafe for occupancy. The building was condemned on Jan. 11 for structural issues, and the city gave the owner 90 days to present a plan to remedy the problems.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
