Ohio YWCA Offers White Tower Building for $1
By Hannah Lepow | Online Only | July 10, 2008
The first White Tower restaurant in Toledo, Ohio, and now arguably the last, will be demolished if a buyer doesn't step up by the end of this month and pay to remove the 1929 diner from its current location.
The YWCA, which has long owned the property, needs the land cleared to begin construction on new housing units for battered women and low-income mothers and children.
Kathy Mast Kane, a historic preservation consultant contracted by the YWCA, says the organization is showing a commitment to both the preservation community and the city of Toledo in its actions. The Y has offered to support an architectural survey of 100 recent-past buildings as mitigation for removing the structure.
The diner closed its doors in 2004, and the building has worn a For Sale sign since early spring. Now a deadline is drawing near. "We're on a short fuse time line," says Mast Kane. Any offer has to be made by July 31 because the YWCA wants to break ground by August or September.
Mast Kane says that interest in the diner has already been expressed, although moving the structure will be tough. The diner is actually two buildings, which were white glazed brick before they were refinished in 1941 with porcelain enamel.
Most recently the home of the 24-hour ButterBURGER, this White Tower franchise was one of a dozen Toledo White Towers. The first White Tower opened in Wisconsin in 1926. At the chain's height in the 1950s there were about 230 eateries in 14 states in the Midwest and along the East Coast.
Finding a buyer for the restaurant isn't impossible, says Joyce Barrett, executive director of Heritage Ohio. "It's a great opportunity. Somebody's going to come forward," she says. "The integrity of the building is really special, and if we can get the attention out there, somebody's going to snap it up."
Subscribe to the Today's News RSS feed
Comments
Submitted by Daytonian at: July 17, 2008
There is a White Tower building in downtown Dayton that still operates as a resturant, although no longer a White Tower