Days for one of downtown Greenville’s oldest buildings are now numbered.
Monday the city was granted a demolition permit for the Elks Lodge building on Washington Avenue by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
With the permit, the city can now knock the building down, said city attorney Andy Alexander.
“They know we’ve been fighting this for three years now and they have finally seen reason and agree that it is dangerous and not practical to repair it because there is no money to repair it and there’s no need for the building,” he said.
The Elks Lodge was considered as a possible site for the new federal courthouse but was eliminated in favor of Stein Mart Square for numerous reasons, including the lodge’s placement by MDAH as a contributing factor to the National Historic Register status of downtown Greenville.
In recent months, Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Assessment Grant funds were used to conduct phase 1 and 2 assessments, which identifed environmental concerns including lead paint in the building.
Additional testing revealed lead contamination was not limited to the building itself but also in the ground and soil surrounding it.
Because the site requires remediation, the city is applying for an EPA Brownfields Cleanup grant for $350,000.
If the grant is awarded sometime in late-spring, it would go to abate asbestos and lead paint and cover demolition costs. A hardship waiver for the cleanup grant is also being requested, which would not require a match from the city.
“If any federal money is going to be involved, we hope, there will be a 30-day period in which Archives and History will do a negative impact,” Alexander said. “I think all they’ve decided they want us to do is save two different types of brick, certain parts of one column, certain parts of another.”
During a recent public meeting at the William Alexander Percy Memorial Library, city officials discussed the possibility of parts of the building, such as the bricks and pillars, being salvaged for the city’s new green space to create walkways and retaining walls, which were included in the city’s recent EPA grant application.
