The Urban Explorer series Episode 1: The Kirshbaum building

By Brent Cotter

Photos by Josiah Bryan JDBryanPhotography.com

As we were pulling Union City Now together, we decided that we wanted to showcase not only where we are as a community, but where we have been. To help in this endeavor, we have the Urban Explorer series of features.

What is Urban Exploring? Urban Exploring is the act of documenting architectural sights, via video and/or photographs, as they sit today. Sounds pretty lame, right? Not exactly. The sights documented are locations generally off limits to the public, and often times have a rich historic background.

Regular contributers Krista Cotter and Josiah Bryan, will each be venturing out to capture perspectives that few are currently able to see. Through this, we will be able to present to you Union City's architectural landscape in an entirely new light. 

We were delighted when we found out that Josiah Bryan already had some experience with the subject. In fact, he did a photo shoot of the Kirshbaum building in 2010. To mark our first episode of the series, these photos are being presented along with commentary by Preservation Society member Ted Leahey. 

This first image is taken from the third floor which remains unfinished. The view is out the southeast window looking down Pearl St., and it is a reminder of the condition of the building when Preservation formed in 1987 in order to save the Kirshbaum Building.

The group that formed the Preservation Society of Union City IN-OH was made up of the core group who worked on the restoration of the Historic Depot, now the home of the Art Association of Randolph Co. Inc. At that time, the city owned the building and it was slated for demolition to put in a parking lot. Because it is an anchor building for the downtown district, we leased the building from the city with the intent of taking ownership if the city thought we had made a good effort to reclaim the building.

We began the project by covering the windows for street safety until they could be repaired. We completed an architectural analysis of the building to be sure it was in good enough condition to save. Following that, work inside began to clean up the facility which has been used for a movie theatre for kids operated by KISS, and also it served for several haunted houses. The next step was to put on a new roof and get the plumbing in operation.

Soon, we had the windows repaired, the plumbing operating, and the inside was ready to open as an Antique Mall in 1992. In 1994, we opened the windows upstairs and the building was painted in the historic colors you see on the building today.

The room in this photo is on the second floor and it houses furniture from the Johnston Furniture Factory. Also on the second floor, though incomplete, on the north side we are organizing a manufacturing/business museum which will be opened next fall. But, in order for that to happen, we need many hands to help us organize and refurbish the room for that purpose.

Downstairs, the building is home to 35 vendors in the Antique Mall. The current mall manager is Judy Bradburn assisted by her husband Bill. The business allows us to maintain the building and continue to make improvements. It also provides income for the many vendors. It is an attraction for many visitors to the city.

Preservation takes pride in this, our first effort at preservation. Following in its footsteps, we have renovated the current city building, the old hotel, the Pennsylvania caboose and saved the interurban ticket booth. -Ted Leahey