MANSFIELD — A significant building in the history of African-American residents in Richland County has been reduced to a pile of bricks.
Demolition of the “Daisy Thomas House” at 89 Wood St. began Thursday and continued Friday morning under cloudy skies and a persistent rain.
The historic brick building is said to be the first home in Richland County built and owned by African-American residents.
(Below are photos taken Friday morning as demolition and cleanup of the former “Daisy Thomas House” continued at 89 Wood St.)
The parcel where the house stands was purchased in 1874 by ex-slave George Barker, who built the three-brick-thick walls in 1875.
It’s named for Barker’s daughter, Sarah Daisy Barker Thomas, who was born there in 1877 and remained there until her death in 1973.
She was active in the First Congregational Church and was part of the group that founded the Mansfield Chapter of the NAACP. Thomas studied at The Oberlin Music Conservatory and taught piano to children for many years.
She willed more than $100,000 to the Richland County Foundation when she died, according to historians.
The building, boarded up for more than 25 years, had been condemned by the city in early 2022 and is owned by the Richland County Land Bank.
The historic building had been a topic of discussion at Land Bank meetings in recent years as board members worked to find an individual or group willing to take on the project of stabilizing and restoring the building.
In August 2022, a local engineer hired by the Land Bank estimated it would cost at least $200,000 just to stabilize and weatherize the building.
Based on that inspection and analysis, the Richland County Land Bank issued what it called a “community call to action” if an individual or organization was interested in paying to save the structure.
Various organizations looked at the site, but there ultimately were no takers, according to Land Bank manager Amy Hamrick.
“It’s a shame. We just don’t know what else to do,” Hamrick said. “We tried everyone and everything to try to get it done.”
She said a portion of the chimney on the second floor had started to collapse recently and the second floor of the structure had dropped more than a foot.
Hamrick said key issues were a roof not properly maintained over the years and a lack of electrical service that prevented a basement sump pump from working.
“There was five feet of water in that basement for five years,” she said.
(Below are recent Land Bank photos showing continuing deterioration of the 89 Wood St. building.)
There had been hopes for the building when Mansfield UMADAOP obtained the property from the Land Bank in October 2017.
The organization, which had done successful rehabilitation projects in the past through the Land Bank, planned to renovate it and turn it into a community center and African-American museum.
However, UMADAOP Executive Director Dennis Baker told Richland Source at the end of 2020 that the organization’s revenues had declined 50 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said planned renovations were on hold while UMADAOP prioritized needs of people with addictions.
Ultimately, UMADAOP returned the property back to the Land Bank, which bid out out the demolition and ultimately contracted with R&D Excavation of Crestline to do the work for $18,800.
The company will remove the bricks and return the site to grass, according to Hamrick.
The future of the land parcel is yet to be determined, though the Mansfield Chapter of the NAACP has previously expressed interest.
An Ohio Historical Marker will be placed at the site and the site will be nominated for the National Register of Historic Places.
Alan Wigton, president of the Richland County Historical Society, said the local organization declined to participate in a “memorandum of understanding” regarding the demolition.
“(We) never changed (our) position that the house should not be demolished. Amy Hamrick worked out the MOA with Columbus independent of our input. Although she shared a draft, (she) never obtained our signatures on the documents because we had not supported demolition,” Wigton said.
Typically an MOA is part of a process of mitigation carried through when a demolition is going to take place, according to Wigton.
“The reason the Land Bank could go forward without our agreement and without completing the mitigation process, was that no federal funds were involved, according to Diana Welling in the State Historic Preservation Office. They were using (city) Pride funds and Ohio Department of Development (funds),” Wigton said.
(Below is a PDF file showing an agreement showing the intention of the Richland County Land Bank to provide an Ohio Historical Marker at the site of the former “Daisy Thomas House.”
Nathalie Wright, a historic preservation consultant, will prepare a marker that “documents the history and architcture of the Daisy Thomas House and its significance to Mansfield,” according to the Land Bank’s contract with Wright.
Jennifer Kime from the Richland County Historical Society said Thomas was an active member of the Mansfield community for nearly 100 years.
“Her legacy was important to the the youth of the community and her entire neighborhood,” she said.
“The house itself was a gorgeous building that stood tall since 1875 and was a pillar of the community on that corner.
“Its demise is definitely a sad day in the Mansfield community and the historical preservation community,” Kime said. “The opportunity to redevelop a building is gone once it’s demolished.
“At this point, we just need to remember Daisy and her family and their role in the community,” she said.
Kime said history of African-Americans in communities like Mansfield across the country is not easy to find.
“It’s mostly oral and it’s hard to establish a researchable history. Hopefully, this is a call to action to help preserve more of the African-American history in our community,” she said.
“We’re lucky that we know a lot of about Daisy, but there are many prominent members of the African-American community here we just don’t have the history for,” Kime said.