A nearly 100-year-old downtown row building across the street from The Historic Fox Theater was demolished by the city last week to make room for a new “pocket park.”
The building at 15 E. First Ave., which once housed the eyeglass lens manufacturing lab for Singleton Joyce Optical, then an antique store, and later briefly hosted a teen club for mentally-disabled youth, has been owned by the city for the last 20 years, said City Planning Director Jim Seitnater.
The plan, said Seitnater, former Downtown Development Director, has always been to level the building and create access to parking lots on the back side of the block.
“We’re excited about the possibilities,” Seitnater said. “It will be a great meeting place. It can be used for a lot of different things. But mainly it’s just a beautiful walk from parking to the flashing lights of the theater marquee.”
(Read more: News – The Hutchinson News)