WILMINGTON — Port City Daily publishes thousands of stories annually and during the last week of the year, the outlet counts down the top 10 most popular read, according to analytics.
READ MORE: No. 10 Most Read Story of 2024: Bringing back passenger rail service to Wilmington
Coming in number nine in 2024: the demolition of a well-known downtown historic building.
After a downtown music venue faced multiple code violations throughout the years, it was razed in January.
Built in 1920, the 208 Market St. building was a historically significant structure in downtown. It opened as The Manor movie theater in 1941, but in the last two decades or more, it became home to multiple live music venues, such as Jacob’s Run, Ziggy’s By the Sea and Throne Theater. It last operated as the Blue Eyed Muse, which shuttered in 2017.
County building inspectors confirmed the building was unsafe the same year due to numerous defects and violations from electrical, plumbing, mechanical, fire and building code requirements.
In June 2023, the county deemed it unsafe for occupancy. The condemnation notice listed poor condition of walls, defective construction and decaying issues posed public safety hazards. The structural integrity of the building was also deemed in question due to water intrusion and it faced a slew of code violations.
By November 2023, county inspectors found the walls needed to come down because of not being structurally sound and unable to be salvaged, leaving the property an open-air empty shell.
HKS Construction was hired by building owner Joseph Hou to tear down the interior to a shell and replace the electrical system, remediate mold, fix the roof, stairs and rails, install a new HVAC system, construct new bathrooms, install new plumbing and more.
In the process, contractors removed the slab on grade and the perimeter soil was dug out on the interior side of the foundation. They didn’t properly shore up the walls before demolishing the building’s interior and it resulted in substantially more “cracking, settlement, and bulging of the walls and pilasters.”
“It was never our intent for these walls to come down,” Hartnett told the Historic Preservation Commission in December. However, he said he discovered water running under the building, which, coupled with a lack of footing on the walls, led to increased destabilization.
The county told PCD in January that Hou planned to turn the property into a two-story apartment complex, though site plans had not been submitted. There has been no update since, county spokesperson Alex Riley said last week.
Tips or comments? Email info@localdailymedia.com.
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
