The timing was most unfortunate.
Memorial Day weekend saw the beginning of the demolition of the Memorial Building in Ironton, one of a shrinking number of buildings built as a tribute to Union soldiers killed in the American Civil War. The Ironton building, like other such structures in Ohio, housed a meeting place for the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the American Legion of its day. Memorial Hall was designed by noted architect Joseph Yost, and opened in 1892. Its massive stone arches and ornamentation marked it as a strong example of the Richardson Romanesque style of architecture.
This is the second Civil War memorial hall torn down in recent years. A similar fate befell Memorial Hall in Springfield a few years ago. Both buildings suffered the fate of demolition by neglect – owners failing to provide basic maintenance funding and allowing the buildings to lapse into severely damaged condition. In the end, both remained salvageable with rock solid walls, but had fates sealed by the inability or unwillingness of local leadership to forge a preservation-based solution.
Instead, familiar post-demolition platitudes filled the air, with pieces of the Ironton building to be grafted into a memorial park to occupy the same space.
Memorial Hall was twice placed on the list of Ohio’s Most Endangered Historic Sites, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
For pictures of the interior of the structure as recently as two years ago, click here to access the Abandoned website.
Photo: OZinOH/Creative Commons License
