College clears corner blight
Heavy equipment is used Wednesday to raze a building owned by Washington & Jefferson College at 90 E. Chestnut St.
Workers demolish a building owned by Washington & Jefferson College at 90 E. Chestnut St. in Washington on Wednesday.
A ramshackle structure at 90 E. Chestnut St. in Washington was on its way down Wednesday as an excavator tore through sections of crumbling roof and walls. Two adjacent dwellings face the same fate.
“The buildings at 98-90 E. Chestnut are coming down,” stated Karen Oosterhous, Washington & Jefferson College representative, in an email.
Neighborhood retailers and office spaces are gone, but the private liberal arts institution continues to expand. The college-owned East Chestnut buildings are just one illustration of development.
A groundbreaking ceremony planned for today kicks off construction of the James David Ross Family Recreation Center at the corner of East Chestnut and North Lincoln streets.
Also on East Chestnut, the Janet Swanson Tennis Center, open in September, is the first completed phase of a $100 million athletic complex expansion project.
Renovations are planned for the Henry Memorial Center, home to W&J athletics, which sits across the street from the demolished properties.
“The city and W&J work hand-in-hand to correct blight,” said Mayor Brenda Davis. “With all the revitalization efforts going on in the area, it made sense for the college to demolish their property.”
According to Oosterhous, the college has no plans for the East Chestnut lots once those structures are gone, leaving the Common Ground Teen Center as the solitary structure in a sea of parking lot. W&J also owns that building.
Oosterhous said the college has no plans to demolish the Common Ground building.