The Kozy Corner building is all but down.
The building, at the corner of Market Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Warren was demolished Monday by a team effort of Wills Builders, John Anderson Construction, Wargo Enterprises, and Letko's Dam Water Hauling.
Lead contractor Wills Builders and demolition contractor John Anderson got to watch the initial portion of the demolition.
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Kozy Corner building in downtown Warren, Pa. demolished.
Wargo handled that, with dust suppression by Letko's.
"They brought him in to take it down," Wills said of Wargo.
The company was selected to bring down the three-story building because of its expertise with taller structures and "because of the proximity to Pennsylvania Avenue and Market Street and other buildings," according to Jack Wills Sr.
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Photos by Brian Ferry
The Kozy Corner demolition begins on Monday and will liekly wrap up today. Video is available at www. timesobserver.com
The first bit of masonry fell to the earth at about 1:30 p.m.
Anderson estimated that the building would be down in four to five hours.
By 6:15 p.m., all of the building, except for the westernmost portion along Market Street, was a heap of rubble. Final demolition is slated to begin at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Barricades were set up limiting traffic on Market to two lanes and on Pennsylvania to three.
Wills provided additional traffic control, completely stopping traffic at key times during the demolition.
For the last hour of the demolition, the block of Pennsylvania between Market and Liberty Street and the block of Market from Pennsylvania to Second Avenue were completely closed.
"The building was in bad shape," according to Warren Building Code Official Alan Gustafson. However, "we had not had any action on it, yet."
"It's unfortunate that it had to be torn down," Alan McIntosh, who had looked into buying the building several years ago. ""It was pretty well devastated on the inside. Structurally, it was sound."
McIntosh's plans for the building included turning it into a hotel. In the 1890s, about when the structure was built, it was the Lyric Hotel.