{"id":1316675,"date":"2019-11-13T14:48:54","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T21:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=990677"},"modified":"2019-11-13T14:48:54","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T21:48:54","slug":"old-downtown-new-castle-schoolhouse-getting-cleaned-up-after-years-of-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/old-downtown-new-castle-schoolhouse-getting-cleaned-up-after-years-of-violations\/","title":{"rendered":"Old downtown New Castle schoolhouse getting cleaned up after years of violations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The old schoolhouse turned apartment building along Main Street in downtown New Castle has been vacant since April due to building code violations. <\/strong>
Matthew Bennett \/ Post Independent<\/em>
<\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

For years, health and safety violations plagued the red and white schoolhouse in downtown New Castle dubbed by many locals \u201cRosie\u2019s building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Located at 151 W. Main Street, the 37,000 square foot-plus property that dates back to 1910 was converted from a schoolhouse to an apartment building by longtime New Castle teacher and resident Rosie Ferrin.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the \u201990s she took individual classrooms and turned each individual classroom into an apartment,\u201d David Reynolds, New Castle town administrator, said. \u201cThere were probably six or seven classrooms that she legally, at the time, converted into apartments.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, in April, the town\u2019s municipal court ordered all of the building\u2019s occupants out after Ferrin failed to remedy several building code violations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat building is heated by one of the oldest coal fired furnaces in the state and they ran into trouble with that heating source,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cFolks had to rely on electrical baseboard heat, opening their oven doors and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrin died in June at the age of 74 while the building was still uninhabitable.<\/p>\n

Relatives of Ferrin have since inherited her estate and continue to work with a local contractor and the town to get the building\u2019s interior and exterior cleaned up.<\/p>\n

\u201cRosie\u2019s family now has management of the building,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the outside of it is cleaned up and they have taken a few dumpster loads out from the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to bringing the building back up to code, Reynolds said the town was working with the contractor to track down titles of abandoned vehicles left on the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a mix of stuff that had been abandoned throughout the years,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cIt\u2019s taken a couple of months now to get those vehicles, old buses, old trailers and things like that removed from the property.\u201d<\/p>\n

What ultimately will become of the vacant building remains in question.<\/p>\n

For now, Reynolds said that Ferrin\u2019s family wanted to resolve lingering electrical and plumbing issues ahead of the winter season.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor at least the wintertime their plan is to get it cleaned up and make it safe,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cCome springtime they are trying to develop plans of what they want to do with it. \u2026I think they are trying to pick and feel through what the community\u2019s needs are for a building like that and what the costs are going to be for renovations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reynolds said that the town\u2019s parks department, area churches and volunteers would decorate the building\u2019s exterior for the holiday season.<\/p>\n

Additionally, when asked if the town had interest in purchasing the property, Reynolds replied no, or at least not at this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is too early to understand what that would even look like,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cThe estate, the local reps and the town have all sort of been working together to create a better environment there,\u201d Reynolds said.<\/p>\n

The building\u2019s location allows for commercial or residential development. However, the property must remain unoccupied until it passes a building inspection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe possibilities are pretty endless,\u201d Bruce Leland, New Castle town councilor, said. \u201cThe family will probably consult with local residents, council, the town\u2019s staff and Main Street businesses to get a good sense of how they should prepare the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The old schoolhouse turned apartment building along Main Street in downtown New Castle has been vacant since April due to building code violations. Matthew Bennett \/ Post Independent Buy Photo For years, health and safety violations plagued the red and white schoolhouse in downtown New Castle dubbed by many locals \u201cRosie\u2019s building.\u201d Located at 151 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 13:27:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}