Pictured is the Carriage House in the village of Batavia, which residents are worried may be slated for demolition to make room for parking. The House was constructed in the late 1800s.
Village residents in Batavia are attempting to save the Carriage House, spearheaded in part by two recently elected newcomers to council.
David Pryor, who is one of two new council members once sworn-in next year along with Scott Runck, started a petition to bring to the Clermont County Board of County Commissioners.
The petition on change.org has garnered more than 2,300 signatures, as of this writing.
Pryor said he wants to see the Carriage House not only stay standing, but to see it “utilized and thriving” by turning it into a “classy event space,” with concerts, receptions, parties and more.
Built around the 1890s, the Carriage House, located at 177 E. Main St., is feared by Pryor and other residents to be slated for demolition and replaced with four parking spots in its place. Currently, the building houses county offices.
At a packed Nov. 17 BCC meeting, Wade Grabowski, director of the Clermont County Facilities Management Department, was asked to present a history of the Carriage House.
He said more than a year out from October 2020, they’ve still been weighing options of what to do with the building: demolish it or make it a viable building for occupation.
To get utilities running separately in the Carriage House would run about $52,000, he said, which is a low price.
Grabowski said they received three quotes on demolishing the building, wtih the lowest being $34,000.
David Painter, commissioner, said while the outside seems to be reminiscent of its original 1800s vintage, the inside is not.
Elaborating on that, Grabowski said the reason the Carriage House is not on the National Register of Historic Places is that to qualify, so much of the original building would still have to be in place.
“Is the building old? Yes, it is. Has it had several renovations? Yes it has,” he said.
“To go through the building, you would think that you were in a building that had been built 15, 20 years ago. Nothing looks like it is from the 1800s if you walk through there with everything that has been done to be occupied,” Bonnie Batchler, commissioner, later added.
In another follow-up, Painter asked if the building could be moved to one of the Park Districts to keep it for the future.
Grabowski said that would be a discussion item, and “anything is possible with the right amount of funding.”
“Can it be moved? My answer to you would probably be I wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s possible,” he said.
When the meeting opened to public comment, a number of people spoke to the BCC on the issue. The first of whom was Pryor. He reiterated his request to as on the petition to leave the Carriage House standing and to repurpose it for another business.
“I believe that leaving a lasting legacy for future generations is critical,” he said. “Small town charm I believe is interwoven into that legacy.”
Cindy Johnson, secretary of the Clermont County Historical Society, a local nonprofit with a specific mission to preserve, protect and promote the historical heritage of the county, also spoke to the BCC.
She shared a story about Karl Hoerner, who built the Carriage House. Not surprisingly, like much of Cincinnati and the surrounding area, he was a German immigrant. He worked as a blacksmith, and built the Carriage House behind his tavern, which housed his eight children on the second floor, according to Johnson.
Runck also spoke before the BCC and added his support for “keeping the charm.”
In a follow-up to some of the outcry on Facebook, Claire Corcoran wrote, “Whoever wrote that the three Commissioners were set on demolition is incorrect. Speaking as just one Commissioner, I did not indicate in any way a desire to demolish the building and I am very open to receiving ideas to save this building.”