By Cassidy Grom | Echo
Factory. Car dealership. Gas station. Electronics manufacturer. Taylor now is in possession of a building that was reportedly all these things. And it's about to change hands again.
In June 2013, Taylor University purchased the dilapidated building that sits at 38 N. Main Street in Upland. The University planned to raze the building and donate the land to the town, but some complications have prolonged the process. Town council members don't have a definite plan for the land's use, and Upland residents aren't sure what exactly the building was used for in the first place.
Taylor University purchased the 9,600 square foot building for $38,000. This year Taylor received a notice of civil zoning violation from Grant County that stated the building was unsafe for habitation and must be either fixed or bulldozed.
There is a large hole in the ceiling where a heating and cooling unit supposedly fell from a taller neighboring building and through the roof, according to Vice President of Finance Stephen Olson.
"It's not like the roof is leaking; the roof is missing," he said. "I was out there once in the winter time and there was snow in the building."
Olson had hoped that within four to six months after the purchase, the land would be cleared and ready for development. However, the building shares a common wall with its neighboring building. To destroy one would mean damaging the other. Two years later, the building still stands.
Taylor has made a formal proposal to donate the building, and at its Nov. 10 meeting, the town council voted to accept it. Now the two parties' attorneys have to finalize the details.
John Bonham, Town Council president, said demolition should start in the spring and the council plans to work with interested parties about developing the vacant site. Bonham said the town was very appreciative of Taylor's partnership with the community.
Taylor sophomore Patrick Linehan doesn't think purchasing the Upland building was a good idea.
"It seems really frustrating to me," he said. "If it's not something that Taylor students are directly involved in, then I don't think a sum of that much (money) is fair."
However, Linehan said he understood purchases where the university gave financial assistance to projects like a playground that Taylor students could help build.
In the long run, Olson believes purchasing the building is in the best interest of Taylor students. Olson's hope is that Upland will sell or give the land to a new business, contributing to Upland's efforts to revitalize downtown. Further economic development may pay off by attracting faculty to Taylor.
"I believe a lot of potential employees, faculty and staff are accustomed to a lot of the amenities that cities and suburbs have to offer-that Upland in general just doesn't have to offer (yet)," Olson said.
Olson said the building may have been recently used by a factory, and Upland residents have varying theories about what the building was used for in the past. An Upland resident entering the next-door bar said it was a car dealership in the '60s. Upland citizen Martha Weiner said it was a chain gas station in the '40s through the '60s.
Lifelong resident Gary Felton said his mother worked in the building making modems for space shuttles as part of an electronics factory in the late '50s and '60s. Felton said it was a furniture factory in the early '50s and a tavern in the '40s. It's possible the building was home to any or all of these entities.
Upland library employee Aubrey Wickham said, "Things change all the time."
