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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 1921)
I The Omaha 'Sunday Bee FKATURES MAGAZINE E 1 VOL. 51 NO. 23. Old Buildings WeAmm In New' By J. T. ARMSTRONG. Using material salvaged from old buildings in the construction of new buildings is a common and a profitable practice in Omaha. So iystematized has this salvag ing become that practically no nia terial from torn down buildings is discarded. s - Some contractors contend that .much ef the older material is su perior to new. As a result, apart ment buildings, store buildings and at least one church have been constructed largely from wood, teel, brick or atone from old struc tures There is a bit ef romance in this business cf wrecking old struc tures and in re-using the salvaged material- Homes once considered palatial fall before the onslaughts of wrecking companies. Walls mellowed with age; walls which have sheltered merriment and joy, visions and ambitions, beauty and love, sorrow and death, totter and fall as Frogress waves his wand. Pays $12 for Building. Thirty-five years ago your. Christ Jensen came to Omaha. He as possessed of $35 and plenty i ambition. Today Mr. Jensen there's left sy is considered wealthy. It was through wrecking buildings and selling the salvaged material tha: he acquired his wealth. 'I bought the first building I wrecked for $12," said Mr.' Jen sen. "It was a three-room house at Eleventh and Chicago 'streets, ' owned by Thomas Meldrom. The transaction took place in 1886. "I got enough lumber from it to build a kitchen for my own home and sold enough more to bring me $29. It was then I "realized the possibilities of the wrecking game." All dimension lumber from old buildings is as good or better than lumber that can be obtained today. It is seasoned and won't shrink, as will some new lumber. Interior Lumber Valuable. fcIn homes built 20 years ago, the door and window casings and other interior finish lumber are valuable. We sell it to those who are remodeling, old homes, built about the same time the wrecked buildings were constructed." The patterns of this old lumber often match that of the home being re modeled. Modern mill equipment turns out irterior finish lumber of a different des'ga. MAGAZINE i " siill plenty ofgbocttnafeHjil ter me vrecteers ser rnrouja. "No lumber goes to waste. We. assort it in sizes and sell it, just as do the lumber yards, but it brings only about half ths price or new lumber. If it isn't good for anything else it goes for kindling. "The old style glass which has not been exposed to too much light is better than the new product in many cases. It is thicker, purer and has no waves in it. When ex posed to the sun for from five to 10 years, though, it becomes green. We sell the good used glass at about the same price as is charged for the new. "Brick is cleaned and re-used if it is whole. If broken tip, the brick is ground and used for con crete in building foundations and retaining walis. "Stones, if they are large, can be recut and used as well as new stones. Although it is not profit able, stone may be ground up and used for concrete, and some is used for foundation .footings under brick walls riastcr may be used in con crete "We pack old laths in bundles of 1.C00, just as they're packed at the mills The old white Dine laths t. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 20, arc really superior to the new and sell for 60 cents on the dollar." Mr. Jensen paused sadly as he reached the fixture stage. "Gas fixtures are junk," he ad mitted. "We have to sell them for what brass and iron they. have in them. They're shipped back to the steel mills, remclted and made into modern electrical fixtures. Plumb ing fixtures only bring about half what they brought when new." Mr. Jensen told of wrecking a fourth of the buildings erected here lor the Trans-Mississippi exposi tion. It was his company that wrecked the old state fair grounds and a score of other buildings to which old settlers ftill refer fre quently. Sidewalk Used in Buliding. "I'll show you a building being made from a sidewalk and a part of the Blue Hill (Neb.) High school," announced Mr. Jensen, rising from his battered desk. A few steps north from his tiny office, which is at 418 North Four teenth street, and Mr. Jensen mo tioned toward a small, neat brick building in the last stages of con struction. "Behold, a former sidewalk,'' he announced, with some pride. "There isn't a bit of new material in it. Even the gratings over the sidewalk in front' of it had been used before." Mr. Jensen explained that the lumber had been shipped here from Blue Hill, wbere his firm, the Oma ha Wrecking company, had wrecked an old school building. The lumber had been planed and looked - new and substantial. The walls of the building, in which bricks from a sidewalk had been used, had as smooth and handsome surface as that of any new building. "That's just one of a dozen build ings I've constructed from old ma terial," said Mr. Jensen. "I've built apartment buildings, store buildings and bungalows from sal vaged material and they're good buildings, too. I know of one of the finest residences in a most ex clusive section of the city that was constructed largely from old lum ber and brick. Boy Realizes Dreams. Over in sunny Italy, not so many years ago, a boy of 12 worked eagerly with expert engineers of that country constructing great stone buildings which are charac teristic of many parts of the Med iterranean peninsula. His young eyes glowed with interest as he aw masses of ione turned into 1921. 1-M impressive structures by skillful engineers and stone masons. This youth is now one of Oma ha's builders. He is V. P. Chiodo, 832 South Twenty-fourth street, . owner of several apartment houses and other property in the vicinity of. Twenty-fourth and Leaven- .-. worth streets. It is the "Chiodo," a 30-apart-ment building at the corner of Twenty-fifth avenue and Marcy streets, that reflects Mr. Chiodo's inherent love for stone. The "Chiodo" also is one of the most handsome examples of how salvaged stone may be utilized. The lower half is constructed from stone salvaged from the old Doug las county court house. , The stone walls of the '"Chiodo" are almost three feet thick. Mr. Chio do estimates he could have built , walls less thick from pressed brick and saved two-thirds of the money he spent. All the stone used had to he recut. He paid stone masons fabulous wages to have the work done and constantly supervised the job himself. But in the end he produced an example of real con servation of materials. There always has been, in the minds of many, the idea that there is something incongruous in a member of the clergy doing physi- . ca! lahor. This ika was dissi SaWagz, Consertarton and Progress are Synonymous, Omaha Wreckers Say. ; pated somewhat by the record of chaplains during the war. But imagine the comment drawn forth back in 1909 when Rev. J. F. Schwartz announced that he wanted a new church and, if neces sary, he would build it himself. , Paster Fulfills Promise. There was more surprise when Rev. Mr. Schwartz made good his promise and actually did construct what is now - the ' Bethany Pres byterian church.' Of course he had help. Those- w ho were in touch with the church at that time" say (here was a Russian stone cutter, and surely there were members of the congregation who assisted. The real problem was to get ma terial. There was no money to buy it. Rev. Mr. Schwartz turn ed his attention to collecting sal vaged material. The good looking church at 2400 North Twentieth street is the result of his efforts. To be sure, there are at least two varieties of stone in its massive walls, but that only lends a picturesque, mo saic effect One member of the congregation said he believed the stained glass windows bad been purchased new. All the other ma terial had been salvaged from oth er structures. Much of it was do nated by large service corporations of the city. TEN CENTS faMi7 r- There was much sentimental in terest in the old Boyd theater building. This was evinced espe cially when the theater was being torn down to make way for a more modern structure. Boards on which feet of the coun try's most noted actors trod, have been used in new buildings; .sce nery which furnished the "at mosphere" for the great Thespians now is doing the same thing for embroynic actors at South and Central High schools. The great asbestos curtain has found renew ed life in the auditorium of Scu'J: High school. Chambers-O'Neill company, tht wrecking firm which tore the ven erable theater to the ground, dis posed of a portion of the seats to a church in the city and the re mainder are being used in the au ditorium at Norfolk, Neb. A 16-ton steel girder which was taken from above the stage is con tinuing its "theatrical career" in a motion picture theater. The bricks of the oil theater have found new usefulness in the walls of the modern Burgess-Nash store building, which replaced the the ater. Officials of Omaha wrecking companies say the words "salvage, conservation and progress," are synonymous.-