Good god, I didn't want to create a Manchester Developments and News thread, because that little burg is about as dead as you can get!

 

Interest in old Manchester school issue not lost

By Wendy Mitchell, Ledger Independent, November 19, 2008

 

MANCHESTER, Ohio -- With a dollar and a dream, local residents approached Village of Manchester officials about saving the old elementary school building for community use.

 

Realizing it would take more than good intentions to take on the responsibility of properly upgrading and maintaining the old school property, council members asked visitors to its meeting Monday to quickly come up with a viable plan of action...

 

Manchester officials to request old school for future youth leagues

By Wendy Mitchell, Ledger Independent. December 3, 2008

 

MANCHESTER, Ohio -- As promised, a group of Manchester parents have banded together and presented an itemized proposal for operating a Manchester Community Youth Center at the old Woolard Elementary School.

 

The proposal was presented to Manchester Village Council Monday night...

 

Sorry if this isn't in the right section of the forum. This is the first one I've created. Anyways, I'm part of a newly established Partnership that is buying a 3 1/5 - 4 story building in Peebles, OH. It's in pretty rough shape and is going to take a lot of work. The good news for us is that we can do most of the work ourselves. I'm going to try and update this fairly often just because I think it will be fun to watch the changes as they occur. The bad thing for me is that I live in Hamilton and am working 6 days a week right now but I'm devoted to getting this up and going so I'll find a way. These first shots of the inside were taken with my phone so they aren't very good but I'll be using the digital from now on so they should get better.

 

This is the actual building. It's the tallest in Peebles and tallest residential in Adams County.

 

 

Sounds like a great project! I've been meaning to get to Peebles soon to look at another development project underway, maybe you can give me a tour sometime.

Absolutely, let me know when your going or wanna go. What's this project your wanting to look at?

I'm trying to reduce the number of photo's on a page so I'll only be doing before and after shots now.

The apartments are in much better shape than I would have been expected. I'm sure if will be fun finishing the building.

Whoa. This is a very unexpected thread. I did a walkabout in Peebles not too long ago along the N&W Portsmouth Sub. and was admiring this building. Bigger than anything in Manchester and certainly West Union.

 

Good luck!!

Well it's been awhile but most of the legalities are out of the way. I took a week long vacation and ended up spending the last 4 days working on this place. Our original plans were just to paint it and rent it but the more time I spent in it the more I wanted to change. The only place you can really tell that anything has changed is the living room in apartment 3 on the 2nd floor. Sadly I only took one before pic of that room so you won't be able to really tell a lot has changed.

 

This is what it looked like before.

 

Here is almost the same angle after working on it this week.

 

Now those two are as if your looking through the entrance to the apartment. This next one is looking from the far left corner (as viewing from the first pics) toward the door and hallway.

 

And this last one is looking from the hallway toward the exterior wall and corner of the previous pic.

 

Now I know it doesn't look like much has been done but busting that concrete stuff off those bricks took me two days. the painting didn't take long unless you wanna include the taping of the trim. That took a while too, at least I thought it did. One thing that you can see in the pics that we are going to change is the carpet. We noticed that it has hardwood flooring underneath so we're peeling the carpet off, hopefully sometime next week. But, until next time, this is all I have for now.

 

It's been a while since I last updated this. I actually have a few pics but I'll try and get more this weekend. I'm only able to work on it on sundays.

The ceiling tiles are amazing! I paid $50 a piece for very plain tin tiles to hang on a wall in my flat, those made me drool - the fact that they are still intact and used as intended is absolutely fantastic!

Well I have new update pics. Their not much but we are making slow progress. All of these are from Apt #1.

 

 

This is the best view of the living room before.

This is the living room after.

 

The kitchen before.

 

The Kitchen after.

 

If you can't tell from the pics all that has really been done is simple cosmetic stuff. We've stripped off the border and painted the living room almost the same color. The kitchen got painted an orangeish tan. I have to sand one of the walls yet. We're also going to redo the box that houses the water heater though I would personally like to put an on demand water heater in and just do away with the big box.

Looking good.

Well, one of the store fronts is finished more or less. They were pushing us to get it ready so the ceiling isn't how I would have preferred it but they said they like it the way it is. Here are the photos from start to finish. These are all looking from the front to the back.

 

From 5-23-10

 

From 5-29-10

 

From 11-25-10

 

If your in Peebles stop by and buy something to keep her in business. We need that monthly rent lol.

Here is the exterior from this weekend. I really wanted to do more but time and money tends to play a big factor into that type of stuff. Plus it served its purpose pretty well, people were looking at the building and actually noticing it. If they realize that since things changed on the outside then they might be changing on the inside then it will be a success. We are really trying to get rid of the HUD/Welfare image. And we already have bigger and better ideas of what to do for next year.

 

 

This is really looking good.  The Christmas lights are wonderful.

To whom it may concern.About the Bayes Block.My great grandfather was John Bayes,who had this structure built.He was a blacksmith and ran a livery on the ground floor,rooms above for travelers.His son lived on sugar st.across Main st in his last yrs,my grandfather.His name-Charles Edgar.My name is David R. Bayes,born West Union 1954.I am currently living near Yellow Springs Oh.I am glad to see this building being saved.I came across this forum trying to find pictures of it in earlier days.Mose Shoemaker ran Wrights hatchery and feed across the tracks.If you read this give me a call at 937-325-3779.Please leave a number if I'm not home and I will return your call...

I know most of you don't know this town and don't really care about it. Regardless, I plan to post my ideas, and hopefully progress, for making this town better and more like an actual town with a downtown area. It's in the northern half of rural Adams County with a population of less than 2k. At one time it use to be a bustling little place with plenty of stores and businesses but things have changed and most of them died out. In my opinion Peebles has the most potential of all the towns in Adams County (I'm aware that that isn't saying much) because it is in close proximity to S.R. 32, it still has a railroad running through it that hasn't been completely abandoned as of yet, and it still has a downtown area that hasn't completely died either. I have various ideas for the area, most of which are probably a little too much for such a lightly populated county but I'm an ambitious guy.

 

The first idea that I'm going to share is a plaza/park located right on the main intersection. As of right now it is just a green space that is only used for the town Christmas tree lighting ceremony. I'm fully aware that a project like this is going to take a lot of money and time. I have ideas for ways to raise money but they aren't going to raise much. I've thought about maybe doing a kickstarter campaign for it but I'm not sure how that would work out considering I've never even been on their website. I would post pictures of street view from google but they are dated and the intersection has been changed since. I'll try to get some pictures later today.

 

Here is the area.

 

My whole plan for this is very much in the infant stage. I'm on the docket to talk to town council about it on August 5. Speaking of which, I plan to run for town council next year. I'm a 27 year old, outspoken, mainly libertarian, male. Most of the much older town council members and myself have different opinions on how to progress the area.

 

Anyways, back on topic, I'm looking for input from you guys. Most of you are from urban areas and I'm sure a lot of you have much more experience in planning and executing on things like this so please let me know what you think.

 

Interesting new post, but I'm afraid that many of us (at least from SW Ohio) know Peebles only because GE tests their jet-engines nearby, correct?

That is correct. GE is a major employer out here and the company takes good care of the community. From what I hear GE recently donated money through their community fund to help build a new skateboard park near the low income housing here in Peebles. I think that's great but I'm looking to build the downtown area and bring more higher income residents and businesses into town.

I've been through Peebles a few times because an Amish farmer with a CSA is just north of there and members in Cincinnati take turns going out to pick up the produce.  I've noticed the golden plow monument, which is across the street from this proposed park.  I thought it was fascinating that this was once such a center of progressive farming methods.

 

Anyway, back to the site.  It looks like the town recently reconfigured Vine Street, so that It lined-up with Elm Street, and this is the leftover space?  It kinda looks like a leftover shape and not very conductive to a proper park.  Sometimes in very urban spaces, these unusually shaped spaces can be made into active parks, but in this situation, it seems like it will end up being mostly a decorative space, not really a space to sit or spend time.

 

Could the plow monument could be moved to the park instead of in the bank parking lot?

You are correct in saying that it is leftover space. The state came in and said that the old intersection was too dangerous and needed to be changed.

 

You also bring up good points about it being a park. That's why I asked about it on here so I appreciate it. One idea I had to make it a plaza area would be to add a water feature in the shape of serpent mound since the earthworks is only a few miles north of town. Seating could be made around the feature.

 

I'm not sure if the Cairn of Peace (Golden Plow) can be moved but I can ask. The plow commemorates the World Plowing competition that took place in Peebles in 1957. Multiple countries had representatives here and, if I recall correctly, over 100,000 people showed up for the festivities. I'm not sure the numbers are true but it was definitely a big deal.

I like the idea of some sort of connection to Serpent Mound.  The space kinda has that long curving shape too...

Here are the pictures of the green space.

 

 

 

I would also like to add that the orange brick building in the first picture is currently vacant but once housed a restaurant. Rumors have circulated that somebody else is trying to get another restaurant in there. It's not guaranteed but it would be nice.

Get a change.org petition going and post it on your FB.

 

Enough signatures there and some help from local politicians might be enough to get your idea on the ballot. It sounds like a good, relatively inexpensive way to beautify Peebles.

 

Best of luck