Winter winds whipping down Main Street in Mansfield are responsible for pulling the metal siding off of Ed Pickens’ Café on Main, causing the siding to fall onto a vehicle below. According to Assistant Manager Del Holloway, no one was injured when the siding came down.
Holloway said a customer alerted the business to the siding blowing off above a section of the café that is currently closed due to a burst pipe in December.
“That room is currently gutted,” said Holloway. “The next step is taking care of the car, and giving the owner a nice lunch.”
Holloway did not currently have an estimate on the cost of damages to the building. He blamed the accident on the way the wind “zips up” Main Street.
Across the street, LaDonna Secrist and Paula Harman of the Squirrel’s Den also noted the wind had been gusting all day on Wednesday. Harman said she heard a roar, then a crash when the metal siding came down.
“We’ve been getting an exceptional number of trucks on Main Street lately, so when I heard the rumble I thought it was a truck,” added Secrist. “I can’t believe it, where did all this stuff come from?”
The most notable part of the siding missing is a picture of a cat in a window; Harman said she noticed it right away, and Holloway mentioned three people had already come into the café attempting to claim the cat.
Dalton “Junior” Wood of Engwiller Properties, which owns the building, was surprised to see the architecture behind the metal siding. Six men reattached the metal siding to the building, but Wood was hopeful.
“I’d like to see the building restored. It has beautiful limestone arches and gray brick. I’ll make new windows for it,” suggested Wood.
