Wayne Gottke was given the final say on what to do with the building and for him there was no question that the only thing to do was to bring it back and improve it as well. There were a few layout changes in the five apartments to improve the flow, but other than updating all the mechanicals and drywall, the building is essentially the same. All the fireplaces are original and many of the doors and window frames on the first floor were saved and redone. Capitol Reconstruction in Lewis Center, Ohio did the work in 13 months.

Wayne thanks the community for their patience with the work, noise, and other inconveniences that they had during the construction and appreciates all the offers of support he received. People stopped by and spoke of their connection to the building. It was turned into apartments in the 1940’s. One couple who had never been in Mount Vernon and were on a search for the building told the story of their grandfather, attorney Horace Greer, who had owned the building from the 1890’s to 1922. He had lost correspondence from US presidents in a previous fire in the rear of the east wing. Evidence of that fire was uncovered during the reconstruction. Rita Durbin stopped by with a picture of the building she took in 1951 on the last day of winter when there was a snow storm. She had been renting one of the apartments from Mrs. Barr.

During the reconstruction the history of eight changes to the building was uncovered. There is evidence of a two story brick structure being incorporated into the main building on the east side. The east wing was added in the 1850’s and the west wing in the 1890’s. Window hinges in the west wing are stamped with the date 1898.

KCRF presented Mr. Gottke and the family with the award at the City Council meeting on May 10 at 7:30.

The public is encouraged to submit names for future consideration. Please contact us through email in our contact information.