This is an old mansion. It sits on the property known as Woodcliff/Midcliff. It is probably dated from the teens or twenties in the Twentieth Century. It is a grand building on the ridge of the Big walnut watershed, kind of Arts and Crafts in style but it seems a hodgepodge. It was a twelve room mansion built for a commanding officer of The Depot I am told, long before the community of Woodcliff sprang up around it. It is no doubt one of the largest houses in Whitehall with huge fieldstone chimneys and dormer windows. It is also callously slated for demolition by the City of Whitehall. It seems Steve Close, the owner of so many properties in Woodcliff also owned this old beauty. For some reason he claims he gave it to the city because they wanted to demo it. This seems to act publicity for Mayor Maggard to show how tough and re-electable she is by fighting wars; wars on crime! wars on blight! (wars on poor people! wars on sense! wars on Whitehall!) and so, she set her guns on this rare old beauty. She doesn’t understand preservation or keeping traditions, she’s a firebrand out to show everybody what a tough, take-charge, take-no-prisoners kinda leader she is. Unfortunately for the community who has to live with her gung-ho actions, sometimes, more than blight is destroyed in the process.

Whitehall has little to no historical buildings left, they are torn down as frequently and with as little fanfare as they are in Columbus when it tears down historical prisons or 19th century buildings for replacements that are nothing more special. To simply tear down a faded but glorious old dowager like this is to show what lack of care one really has for Whitehall and its traditions and keepsakes. It’s a careless betrayal to our shared historical past, that which we can never retrieve, much like all the old school buildings parents of Whitehall’s children past paid for with their hard-earned dollars and where so much of our small-town’s spirit and life passed through. Torn down because grants were proffered. Sure, we have shiny new, technologically-advanced buildings now which will soon fill with their own memories but it is nevertheless a sad thing that so much was lost with nary an affectionate goodbye or sliver of remorse. I love history and I love architecture and I love the spirit that imbues old buildings and things. Outside of homes, there is so little left from before all the suburban houses were built for post-war families. So little left from Whitehall’s military depot and farming days. This though, is still here. Here’s the rub though…

Steve Close called me today and told me that he spoke to a realty manager/agent(?) and they told him that the Veteran’s Administration offered Whitehall $75,000 for the house and that they want to rehab it and use it to house veterans. The City of Whitehall, who got it for free, is tearing it down at a cost to taxpayers of $85,000. (wars on blight cost money)

The city said “no” to the sale.

Whitehall has the ability to not only do right by veterans and to save an old part of its history but also save $85,000 of the taxpayers money AND take in an additional $75,000 for the city, for a total gain of $160,000, but, Kim Maggard must wage her war on blight (a blighted mansion?!) and tear it down anyway because regardless of added revenue for the city or helping veterans or saving historical Whitehall treasures, that grande dame on the bluff would ultimately stand in the way of her larger schemes to develop the entire parcel once it’s ‘acquired’ from its rightful owners. Yet another historical building gone in Whitehall, not because it couldn’t be saved or because there was no money to salvage it but because of the aggrandizement of one person’s mercenary ego. This is not a war on blight. It is a war on Whitehall itself and principals and things we hold dear. It is waged as a facade, a means to ratchet her climb to bigger and better political levels fed by her hunger for power and self-promotion. To show everyone that Kimberly J Maggard is a winner and that her rightful glory will not be forsaken or denied. That glory which will ultimately be our misery and that gain which will be our loss.