Women's Civic Center

BEWARE - Excessive wordiness ahead!  A lot of talk has surrounded the fate of the building that until recently stood just north of the library on Main St.  It was a building with a long history and a number of truly major problems.  I spent a good deal of time last week talking with people about why it had "suddenly" been torn down without "any attempts" to save it.  I would like to spend a little time here adding to what I sent in to the Hutchinson News' Western Front column, a letter that will hopefully appear soon.

The decision to demolish the building was originally made not in 2009 but in 2002 at the beginning of the 7-year odyssey to do something with the property that would benefit the city of Hutchinson and the library.  That sounds backwards from what happened, doesn't it?  Let me try to shed some light.

The Women's Civic Center was a fixture in Hutchinson early on.  First as a residence and then as a meeting place for numerous civic organizations from the late 1920's through the mid-1990's.  However, use of the building declined steadily over the years and in the last years of the 20th century, the building began to fall into disrepair.  When the property came to the ownership of the library early in the 2000's it had been essentially abandoned.  Despite its state, the library administration at the time did a great amount of research and study to see what benefit the building could provide to library patrons.  After looking at the options though, it was decided that the building could not be made into a space usable by the library for library services.

Wanting, I am sure, to avoid the option of demolishing the house, the library then tried to sell the building with the caveat that it be moved from the site.  Several parties explored the possibility, but none committed to purchase it.  The library then tried to give the building away to anyone who would move it - again without any takers.  The library administration had a difficult decision to make - renovate anyway or demolish.  In 2002, the library sought an estimate from a local architect regarding costs for renovating the Civic Center into a public-use space.  In 2002, the minimum estimate for renovation was $92,000 (about $110,000 in 2009 dollars).  Not only did the library lack that amount of money, it was far too much money to expend on a building that had no clear use designated for it (library-wise).  The remaining option was demolition.

After formal discussions following the procedures of the Hutchinson Landmark Commission in the early- to mid-2000's, the library administration was prepared to follow through with the difficult decision to demolish the building and create some green space near the front entrance.  But the story didn't end there.  A group of citizens asked the library to donate the building to the Hutchinson/Reno arts and Humanities Council (HRAH) and it did.  For a period of several years - from February 2005 until January of 2009 - HRAH attempted to raise funds to renovate the building.  They worked very hard, applying for restoration grants, holding awareness-raising events, fund-raisers, etc.  They even erected a sign that stood in the front yard for nearly 2 years.  But the State Historical Society didn't deem the building of adequate historical value to grant any money towards restoration, despite at least three attempts to get help.  In the end, the money was not to be found and the HRAH group had to move in another direction.

Finally, after the building returned to the library last January the current library administration had to come to terms with a difficult problem once again.  There were tens of thousands of dollars needed to simply shore up the failing foundation and front porch, let alone the tens of thousands more to return the building to usefulness.  It no longer had working plumbing, up-to-code bathroom facilities or acceptable public access to even the first floor.  So the decision was made for the second time to demolish the building. After advertising a period for reclamation of building materials from the Civic Center this fall, the contract for demolition was let.

No, we did not advertise the building as a give-away again.  There was no reason to assume this was a viable option.  Could we have tried again?  Of course.  But seven years worth of attempted sale, give away, and fund-raising said to us that while some might "wish" that something could be done, no one was able to actually do it.  Was this a faulty assumption?  Possibly.  There is always room to second guess.  More than one person has made it known that they would have invested their dollars "if they had only had the chance".  Would they have really done this?  Possibly.  Though the library and HRAH practically begged for that sort of interest for the past seven years without luck.

So the building is gone.  I am sure that for some its memory will fade.  I am sure that some will not let it go.  The library will not be letting it go.  The library is planning to restore the Rayl Reading Room, a part of the original 1949 section of the library.  Wood paneling salvaged from the Civic Center will be incorporated into this old / new space.  The room will fill the need for an oft-requested quiet study area and I think the paneling from the Civic Center will make it warm and inviting.