Condos could replace Maennerchor building
A developer wants to build a 3 -story, 18-unit condominium building on the Columbus Maennerchor building site in the Brewery District, saying the building is in bad shape and would cost too much to rehabilitate.
Preservationists want the developer to incorporate the building at 966 S. High St. into the project.
“The thought of losing that building is truly disheartening,” said Becky West, executive director of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation.
Developer David Galbreath will present his plan for the $5 million project to the Brewery District Commission on Thursday. The commission is not expected to immediately make a decision, but the developer and preservationists will present their cases.
In an email, Galbreath said he has no plans to use the Maennerchor building, which the singing group bought in 1921, Franklin County auditor’s records show. West said the building originally was the parsonage for the Independent Protestant Church and dates to the 1880s. Maennerchor, which dates to 1848, is believed to be the country’s oldest continually active German singing society.
“The cost to acquire and renovate the current building is far too expensive to attempt to reconfigure it,” Galbreath wrote. “The interior has been completely stripped and is a shell of the former building.”
He added that 12,000 square feet of the building already has been demolished, and what remains is in “terrible condition.”
“The history of the building is its use as the Maennerchor organization; the building itself is not historical,” he wrote.
West said that demolition is not cheap, and that while the building’s interior is “a mess,” the structure itself is stable and reusable.
“I think it’s easy for someone who doesn’t want to save the building to say it’s in bad shape,” West said.
Nancy Kotting, historic preservation officer for the German Village Society, said her organization also opposes the demolition of the building, which is just outside the German Village boundaries.
Kotting said that the Maennerchor building is culturally iconic for both German Village and the Brewery District.
“It teaches us about the importance of social structure to new immigrants,” Kotting said. “That is a contemporary lesson.”
The proposed project would have 15 two-bedroom flats and three one-bedroom flats, with rooftop terraces. The units would be priced at about $400,000 each, Galbreath said.
In an interview Wednesday, Galbreath said the Maennerchor roof is leaking and the building has been empty since 2011.
“All the woodwork, doors and trim have been stripped,” he said.
“This is not a building that is worth saving.”
Galbreath Properties bought the 0.3-acre property for $460,000 in November in an auction by Columbus City Schools.
Maennerchor officials still plan to build a 2,000-square-foot addition on the German Heritage House at 976 S. High St., the German singing society’s headquarters.
Werner Niehaus, president of the Columbus Maennerchor, said the building to be demolished, without the Maennerchor, is “meaningless.”
“The history is not the brick and mortar. The history is the choir,” he said.