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Restoring Memories
Love for Warren drives native to help ‘fill in the doughnut’
By ED RUNYAN
runyan@vindy.com
WARREN
Photo
This 146-year-old building on Courthouse Square in Warren is being restored by Clouser.
Paul Clouser barely can contain his excitement over the $250,000 project he has undertaken to turn an abandoned, 146-year-old building on Courthouse Square into a commercial and residential showpiece.
As Clouser, owner of National Fire Repair, stood inside the gutted, three-story wooden and brick structure at 141 W. Market St. this week, his plans sprung from the architectural drawings at his hand — but mostly from his imagination and childhood memories of downtown Warren.
“As a kid, I can remember shopping in all these buildings downtown at Christmastime. It [commercial activity] moved away,” said Clouser, who has lived in Warren all his 47 years.
“I love this community. When I graduated from YSU, people said, ‘Move away.’ I said, ‘Why?’ You can go anywhere and be happy. There’s not a lot of places you can go and make a difference.”
The difference Clouser hopes to make is what he refers to as “filling in the doughnut,” with vacant downtown buildings representing the hole.
“For years, I’ve been hearing about filling in the doughnut, so this is filling in the doughnut,” he said of his renovation. One of two commercial spaces on the ground floor will house his Warren National Fire Repair office. The second floor will be turned into two 2,200-square-foot apartments, and the third floor will be the 4,760-square foot apartment where he and his wife will live.
“The concept is you have all of these buildings here. Why not use them?” he said.
When Eastwood Mall was built in the 1960s, the largest retailers moved out of downtown Warren, leaving the area with mostly governmental, banking and other service industries.
The privately-owned buildings around the square contain only a few living spaces, despite the success many older cities have had in turning downtown structures into loft-style apartments.
“This is the center of the downtown. It doesn’t get any more central than this,” Clouser said, adding that he is “giddy” with the thought of new windows arriving within a week that will enable him to begin to enjoy the view of the south entrance to the majestic courthouse and tree-filled square.
“I told my wife we can run out to the suburbs or we can do this,” Clouser said. “Fortunately, she agreed with me.”
Clouser and he and his wife spend a great deal of time enjoying downtown festivals, concerts at the city’s downtown amphitheater and downtown Christmas decorations, so living downtown will fit in nicely with their lifestyle.
The office for National Fire Repair, which will retain its headquarters on East Indianola Avenue in Youngstown, is likely to be ready by July, along with his third-floor apartment. The remaining spaces will be ready for rental in late 2010 or early 2011, Clouser said.
Not only does Clouser expect to enjoy a view out the front windows of Courthouse Square, but he’s building an open-air patio on the back that will provide a view of the skyline on the south side of town.
The view is about to improve considerably, Clouser noted, as the former county Job and Family Services building is being torn down behind his building.
Inside his apartment, he is restoring two skylights and adding fireplaces in the living room and master bedroom. The unit also will feature a walk-in closet, ornate columns, exposed brick walls, workout room, and restored, original wooden floors.
The building, erected around 1863, was last used as a comic bookstore about seven years ago but has been vacant since then. Perhaps its most well-known tenant was Vautrot and Meyers jewelers, but the building also housed the Knights of Columbus, Dilly’s Dance Studio, Park Hardware and Midwest Fur Co.
Clouser admits that part of what motivates him to turn his building into something special is an article that Helen O’Neill wrote for the Associated Press last May that talked about the “hopelessness” of the “gritty river town.” It featured a photograph taken of a ramshackle door on the front of Clouser’s building.
Clouser said he plans to send an invitation to the author of that story when the building is finished, inviting her to come see what good things are happening here. He plans to ship her the invitation tacked to that door.