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Historical Building Demolished

Reporter: Jonathan Hardison

New Media Producer: Rachel Chambliss

A historic piece of downtown Evansville came down Saturday morning.

Most of the rubble and debris was cleared away over the course of Saturday afternoon, making way for something new to rise from the dust of a historic building.

Saturday morning, Newswatch caught up with several Evansville natives who had mixed feelings about seeing the Skora building come down.

Robert Thomas, who worked in the building, recalls, "Lot of good memories there."

Onlooker Mike Glaser adds, "It brings back a lot of memories, because if my memory's right, the grand theater was right across the street, and I used to go by this building going to the grand theater."

Former Historical Society President Dennis Beadles says, "Couple weeks ago, we came down and talked about the building that was going to be torn down. And I told him I had a picture of the building when it was fairly new."

Beadles and his grandson have been tracking the fight to save the Skora building.

Beadles continues, "A couple of weeks ago, we came down and took pictures of it and the Kenny Kent building. And I said, 'well now we've got the before, and we'll come back afterwards and take pictures of it.'"

Thomas says, "I hate to see it torn down, because it's part of Evansville history. We'll never see a building like that again in town."

But even those, who appreciate this building's history, see a new beginning shaped in the dust of this end.

Demolition superintendent Tim Klenck explains, "I'm excited for the city, because these old buildings need to come down. They wanna have the downtown come alive a little bit, and this is the way to do it."

The city did try to save this building, but came to the conclusion, it was just not economically feasible.

The plans for what to do with this soon to be vacant lot are still in the works.

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