Shelby’s Historic Preservation Committee met Friday to discuss Central School’s Gym and more

The Historic Preservation Committee met last Friday morning in the Water St. conference room at City Hall to discuss upcoming events such as self-guided historical tours and the Building Doctor visit among other issues. The committee meets to discuss issues surrounding the many historical buildings in Shelby and they make sure the buildings are cared for and respected accordingly.

The committee is preparing for the Building Doctor visit tentatively scheduled for October 10 or 11, 2022. The program is through the Ohio Historic Preservation Office and will be held at

Shelby High School. This program teaches historical building owners how to care for their buildings and offers ideas for repairs and remodels. The Building Doctor will be visiting around 10 buildings in Shelby and offering their advice.

The committee also discussed self-guided walking tours versus expert-guided walking tours. Christine Drain, committee leader, created a tour for Shelby using a site called Clio where you can take a tour of historical sites using your cell phone. This would make it easy for those curious about Shelby’s history to lead themselves on a tour of the interesting locations around town. The committee would also like to do a guided walking tour with someone educated in Shelby’s history. However, the construction downtown posed a concern and committee member Randy Sampsel suggested postponing the guided tours until next spring after the Blackfork Commons is completed.

During the meeting, there was also discussion about Central gym being torn down. Christina brought up concerns about the gym at Central being saved because it was where Larry Siegfried played and is a part of Shelby’s history. Joe Gies, committee member, was on the other end of argument saying that it was for the best that the building be torn down because it would be a “nightmare” to repair. The building is also in a floodplain which makes it even more difficult to manage.

Christina suggested it be fixed up and used as an emergency shelter location in the event of a bad storm or other natural disaster. The committee plans to keep looking into the issue to see if anything can be done to save the Central gym. Lacy Bessette, committee secretary, is attending a conference held by the National Alliance of Preservation Commission and plans to attend a seminar about flood-proofing historical buildings to gain insight into the issue.