After a fire in Fort Smith, Ark., officials approved the demolition of the historic W.M. Fishback/Adelaide Hall building. The owner plans to rebuild a modern structure with historic qualities, following concerns about safety and structural damage post-fire. No injuries were reported in the incident.
Shutterstock photo/Akintevs
The historic W.M. Fishback/Adelaide Hall building in downtown Fort Smith, Ark., which burned in the early morning hours of Nov. 6, was approved for demolition Nov. 21 by the city's Central Business Improvement District (CBID) commission.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported that the resolution allows the owner of the structure, which was home to the Bricktown Brewery, to raze some or all of the building that was damaged.
CBID Commissioner Sam Sicard said his board was unanimous in its decision that the building had to be torn down after hearing about its post-fire condition.
While a lot of attention has been put on the building's demolition, he added that Fort Smith residents should know the developer behind the project is committed to rebuilding the structure in a quality way.
"I have complete confidence that they will rebuild something that will be an impressive building now and will stand the test of time a century into the future," Sicard said.
Rick Griffin, of Griffin Properties, and owner of Adelaide Hall, said he hopes to begin demolition on the property sometime in early December. The company is currently working to get permits from the city and state for the work, he told the Democrat Gazette.
Griffin added that his company is already searching for a suitable company to perform the demolition through a bidding process.
"The building is in an unsafe condition, and we have been visiting with the [Fort Smith] Police Department to help us keep people and cars away from the building when we do the demo. We want to do it as fast as we can."
A key concern in the demolition process, according to Griffin, is the brick exterior walls that are part of the structure itself and were damaged by the fire. The goal is to have all the bricks tumble inward during the demolition process, taking care that no wall or individual set of bricks falls the other way.
Once the structure is torn down, the property management company will have to look at the site like a new construction project, he said. Part of the process to construct the new building will be to do dirt work beneath the structure as well as obtain building permits from the city.
"We don't know what is underneath the building because it was rebuilt in 1885, so we will have to do dirt work, do footings, and do all that you would do to build a building," Griffin elaborated.
Griffin Properties also is trying to get the demolition and new construction work done as quickly as it can to restore the downtown space. Usually, Griffin said, the process takes between 12 and 18 months to get a project ready to build.
"I loosely use the word ‘replicate,'" he explained to the Democrat Gazette. "We are going to use the Adelaide Hall Building that is burned as a guide to what we build back. It will be modern, but it will look historic. We don't want it to be stylish and modern; we want it to be historic and cool."
Adelaide Hall ‘Unsafe, Unsuitable for Salvage'
The city's decision to demolish the burned-out building was recommended following a thorough review by Larry Schmaltz, a structural engineer, according to a memo from Jeff Dingman, deputy city administrator.
"The building is a significant icon in downtown Fort Smith and is considered a 'contributing structure' to the Garrison Avenue Historic District," read a memo included in the commission meeting packet. "The remains of the building have been inspected and deemed unsafe and unsuitable for salvage."
Fort Smith Municipal Code requires that any demolition request for a "contributing structure" in the Garrison Avenue Historic District be approved by both the CBID and its director.
The early morning blaze Nov. 6 gutted the historic structure, located at 318 Garrison Ave., which housed the popular Bricktown Brewery restaurant, just east of the Garrison Avenue bridge over the Arkansas River.
Fire and police squads were first called to the building at about 2:30 a.m., according to an alert from the Fort Smith Police Department (FSPD).
Nearly five hours later, about 7:15 a.m., the fire rekindled, and emergency crews from the Fort Smith Fire Department (FSFD) were called back to the site. Smoke from the blaze could be seen for miles and filled the air across the city's downtown district.
Firefighters had the flames knocked down by about 8:20 a.m., and the smoke coming from the building had lessened. By a little after 9 a.m., firefighters were entering the first and second floors of the building to check for hot spots.
The blaze's cause was not determined at the time, and no injuries were reported, authorities reported.
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