ACHTUNG: This is not a fair and balanced story. It is an editorial by the editor.
There are two curious sidebars accompanying the recent news about the flurry of activity at the old Gurney’s IGA building on the northwest corner of downtown Wayland.
One is that the people responsible for the welcome remodeling and renovations aren’t saying a word about it, even though the fruit of their labors is obvious to any passersby.
The second is occasional comments from citizens suggesting this admitted eyesore should be torn down.
The Uccello family, famous for establishing the Salvino’s Restaurant on West Superior Street, apparently have become interested in a sort of urban renewal project to restore and renew a very visible slice of Wayland history. The old Gurney’s building has a rich and fascinating saga that goes back more than 100 years.
This most welcome project turns away from the nasty modern habit of razing historic buildings to make way for parking lots. In the interests of preserving our heritage, Salvatore Uccello and his family are providing a public service we haven’t seen for that historic structure in more than 40 years.
Many businesses have been tried at the “Corner Curse” and many have failed since Walt Gurney shut down his grocery in 1974. The result too often has been depressing boarded up replicas of urban decay right in the heart of downtown.
Now comes an effort to use the recently burned next door neighbor, Giuseppe’s Pizza, for preparing the food and the main floor adjacent as a dining area. We certainly don’t know yet what kind of eatery is planned.
Combined with this vision are upstairs apartments.
The intersection of Main and Superior streets was the site of the birth of this community in 1837, the same year Michigan officially became a state. Nelson Chambers cleared the surrounding forest land and less than 20 years later the old Plank Road was running through what then was called “Chambers’ Corners.”
The Village of Wayland was established in 1868, yes just one year shy of a sesquicenntenial celebration that needs to take place in the summer of 2018. And a gleaming new business at the old Gurney building would make a splendid addition to festivities, if they occur.
This is why it puzzles and saddens me to hear and read commentary that the building should come down. If we care about Wayland’s history and heritage, we should applaud the renovation and remodeling efforts and do whatever we can to help it along.
It’s an eyesore and ugly. History? Really? Burn it down and make downtown Wayland an attractive place with a new modern structure. My gosh, a new kennel would be better than this piece of junk.
How could anyone possibly be upset over the renovation of an existing building? The bulldozer theory is one of the worst ideas ever. When it is possible to renovate and reuse a building, it would be just plain wasteful not to continue revitalizing the downtown area. Too often “New modern structures” ( while looking nice at the time) become outdated and cries are heard for the bulldozers again. We are a young country. Compare our 200+ years to some European countries. They have some beautiful buildings much older than our 200+ years. In fact many of our population travel abroad just to see them! Wake up America! quite being so wasteful just to fit your idea of being pretty!
Was not this structure modern at one time? Bulldoze it and move into the 2000’s Wayland!
I for one would so proud and so excited to see this building back to it’s old glory days.
Tearing down old buildings isn’t exactly the modern way anymore. In the 1950s that was the style and you can find so many critiques of the urban renewal practices of those days.
In many ways the movement to revitalize small downtowns by fixing up old buildings is the hallmark of today’s development movement. It is not the 21st century way of things to tear down and start over. It also is not necessarily cheap to just tear down and start over. Historic buildings get people in the building just for the sake of a historic look and feel. You can’t build that roadside appeal from scratch today.