The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

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October 16, 2009

Preserving history on green

By Patrick Cooley

BROOKFIELD — Owners of historic buildings surrounding the Brookfield Township Green will be getting some assistance with restoring their properties.

On Oct. 8, Brookfield Historical Center and township trustees used state grants to hire Benjamin and Rickey, a Columbus construction and renovation company, to provide to owners of nine properties with guidelines on how to maintain the historical significance of their buildings.

Darrell Beach, a member of the historical center, said participation is voluntary, and owners who take part will be educated on how restore and renovate their properties, and how to apply for state and federal grant money to do so.

Benjamin and Rickey is “giving us guidelines on what can and cannot be done,” he said. “The goal is to preserve and promote the historic district here.”

The green is located on state Route 7, between Warren Sharon Road and state Route 83.

“The entire west side of the green was designated as part of the historical district,” Beach said.

He said most historic buildings were built in the 1800s and early 1900s.

Some of them are homes and others are businesses, such as the Madasz Funeral Chapel on Warren Sharon.

That building was built in 1816, according to manager Rob Dillon and owner Joe Lane.

“This building has served a lot of purposes,” Dillon said. “It was a stage coach stop and a doctor’s office in the early 1900s, and it was a chiropractor’s office at one point. It’s been a funeral home since sometime in the late 1950s.”

“The original house was much smaller than the present building,” he added.

Many of the walls in the funeral chapel are rounded, rather than meeting at 90-degree angles, something Dillon said helps define the original parts of the building from the parts added in the 1960s and 1980s.

Lane said he hadn’t been contacted about talking to the contractor, but he thought it was a great idea.

“We’ve got a real issue we’re struggling with,” he said,

Lane said that the paint on the outside of the funeral chapel is peeling, and they haven’t been able to find a contractor they were comfortable with to maintain the building’s historical significance in repainting or adding siding.

Another of the historic buildings is the Obermiyer house, across Warren Sharon Road from the funeral chapel.

The house is divided into three apartments, and owner Mike Obermiyer said one of the things that makes it historic is a tunnel that was part of the Underground Railroad that sheltered escaping slaves as they fled north to freedom.

“Whenever you see the house, you say, ‘That’s the one with the tunnel,’ ” Obermiyer said.

He said he likes what the township is doing with the green. “If they want to (renovate) the whole green, I’m all for that, right now there’s nothing in Brookfield,” he said.

Beach said the contractor should begin talking to building owners in the spring.

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