Yet another building left to rot. The front door was literally wide open and unlocked, the building neglected and left to rot.
What: Park Hotel
Where: Toledo, Ohio
More at: http://toledowastewalker.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/park-hotel-urban-day-in-toledo-ohio/
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Comments ... #
Such a cool building. I remember going to the diner on the north side of the building to hang out late at night when we were in high school. I think it was called Lou's Diner back then? Lots of velvet Elvis's on the wall and it had that great dive-y diner feel.
posted by idinspired on Feb 27, 2013 at 02:00:10 pm #
Not much activity around there and no hope for redevelopment. City should reduce it to a pile of bricks.
posted by oldhometown on Feb 27, 2013 at 03:51:16 pm #
About a block from the train station.
posted by oldhometown on Feb 27, 2013 at 04:00:40 pm #
What's that new building between the Park Hotel and the train station? I noticed it the last time I was in town, but I didn't see what it was. With the amount of empty lots and empty buildings on Emerald, Knapp, Williams, and Wade Streets, it would be nice to make that area a transportation hub for the city. Maybe the powers that be can move the Greyhound station and the Megabus stop there. That could also create a new central hub for Tarta since it seems people are vocal about the current central Tarta hub and the plans to replace that hub (since it will take up space in one of the about 2,000 empty parking lots in downtown).
Greyhound station--maybe. But Megabus ain't going anywhere because its current stop suits its purposes (the 80-90 Chicago/Cleveland corridor) just fine. Plus, they get a lot of bus riders who wouldn't dream of hanging out at the bus terminal downtown.
Location is too far from the CBD to consider TARTA hub, IMO.
posted by oldhometown on Feb 27, 2013 at 04:14:46 pm # 2 people liked this
The proximity to 80/90 and 475 does make a lot of sense for Megabus' current location at Southwyck. As somebody who has been to a number of Megabus stations, a lot of the Megabus stops are at or near the city's main transportation center. Toledo is unique in how far it is from the rest of the city's transportation, but as you point out, it is very close to the road the bus uses.
The new building is the TARPS facility, the paratransit buses. The area is sort of a half way transit center with the train station, TARPS, and interstate buses stop at the bus station all the time. It would sure be practical if Greyhound was based there too. The old Park Hotel used to be where you stayed if you got off the train in the middle of the night. Now you get off the train and you have to get a cab to go anywhere, or shlep yourself to the Lorraine, yikes.
posted by MaryCooksalot on Feb 27, 2013 at 05:06:46 pm #
I mean interstate buses stop at the AMTRAK TRAIN station
posted by MaryCooksalot on Feb 27, 2013 at 05:07:51 pm #
I used to spend a LOT of time at Lou's Diner. Lou was amazing - here's a blog post I put up back in 2005 about it... on uh... coughcoughmyspacecoughcough. edited to remove a bunch of unnecessary punctuation and whatnot.
---
lou's diner. that's a piece of history, really. closed down several years ago - like 2000, 2001? I don't know, it's not documented anywhere I've ever seen on the internet, but it was kind of this spot where...
christ, it's hard to explain what it was...
it was a diner.
best after-bar-diner ever in Toledo. someone famous once wrote a song about Toledo sitting there waiting for a train to come...
Worst coffee ever, but for 2.10 you could get the lou's breakfast special - 2 eggs, toast, hash browns, a bunch of bacon, and coffee - 24 hours a day. Lou personally apologized to the diners when it was raised to 2.35.
There were pinball machines, an old centipede machine, a jukebox that perpetually seemed to be playing Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin, transvestites, prostitutes, pimps, transvestite prostitutes, homeless people, bands, drunks, straightedges, punks, preps, elvises...
It was located in the bottom floor of a hotel for vagrants down by the trainstation downtown called the Park hotel - seedy as it gets.
Lou had been running it for as long as anyone could remember, a kind old lady with white, perfect hair and perfect manners who you did NOT piss off. You did NOT put your feet on the chairs. You did NOT neglect to say please and thank you with the orders. You did NOT neglect to say hello and chit chat with Lou before departing once she decided you were family (and so many of us regulars were). Her son Dan was always available behind the counter refilling the coffee and cooking the food, always had the worst and most offensive possible joke onhand for all takers.
It was as free and safe of a place as I remember having in Toledo, really. Where the true underbelly showed up and mixed with the upper crust and where, despite the occasional overdose in the bathroom, things went on like they would anywhere else in the world.
I had the neck to the first guitar i broke hanging on the wall there, signed by that entire band (jim's gone fishin' - rest in peace), spent what seems like years meeting new people, playing pinball, smoking, playing euchre, recovering from nights of drinking....
a few years ago, the Park hotel was bought by a couple of people from out of town and they gave Lou a few months to vacate. the day I heard the news was the same day I found out that the cancer Lou had been fighting off for years had turned ugly and that she was done fighting.
I don't know what happened to Dan or Lou or most of the regulars from that place other than my closest friends, but it feels like they died there on that last day of business when the last velvet Elvis painting was pulled off the wall.
posted by endcycle on Feb 27, 2013 at 05:11:10 pm # 13 people liked this
^^Great post.
posted by oldhometown on Feb 27, 2013 at 05:20:31 pm #
Stories like what endcycle are really a major motivating factor for why I do this project: there is just so much great personal history...
posted by OhioKimono on Feb 27, 2013 at 05:30:06 pm #
Hall of Fame. Great post. Great thread.
posted by Molsonator on Feb 27, 2013 at 05:35:28 pm #
Very sad had seen inside as recently as a few years ago the bar area had still been intack including pool tables etc
posted by In_vin_veritas on Feb 27, 2013 at 05:48:40 pm #
Stories like what endcycle are really a major motivating factor for why I do this project: there is just so much great personal history...
thanks ohiokimono. glad SOMETHING from myspace was worth keeping. :)
Awesome pictures and a great post. Isn't there a youth hostel that is supposed to be built there or close by? I think that is a neat old building and would love to see that area revitalized with the train station close by and whatnot.
posted by Dappling2 on Feb 27, 2013 at 10:59:44 pm # 1 person liked this
The youth hostel.....a vacant nasty shell that sits open and deserted: http://toledowastewalker.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/hotel-royal-toledo-international-hostel-toledo-ohio/ photos and more at the link.
posted by OhioKimono on Feb 27, 2013 at 11:07:19 pm #
Have you checked out the Pythian Castle yet? I'd love to see interior shots if it's possible-
http://www.toledoblade.com/Real-Estate/2013/02/25/Pythian-Castle-a-monument-to-hard-times.html
I work right across the street from that beauty, and have always wondered what it's like inside.
I have checked out the Pythian Castle - tbh I would prefer legal access. Does anyone have tips or leads as to who I should contact?
I really want to take photos of the place before it is too late. It is such a historical landmark for Toledo.
posted by OhioKimono on Feb 28, 2013 at 11:21:27 am #
I'm not sure who to contact - according to the Blade -
"Records show the building is owned by Toledo’s Pythian Castle LLC, an Ohio limited liability corporation. Calls and emails to Stephen Keller, a Maumee attorney identified on a document as the corporation’s agent, were not returned."
Might want to start with him. You PROBABLY won't get anywhere, but it's worth a shot. If you DO get access, I'd love to walk through it. Let me know.
That contact may change soon. Rumblings lately of an investor inquiring about it.
The place is condemned....I doubt there's an investor who will go through with it.
posted by OhioKimono on Feb 28, 2013 at 12:33:26 pm #
cool - it's a gorgeous building from the outside even with its state of disrepair. hope something good happens.
The fact that a building is condemned isn't in itself a big deal. They're often condemned for reasons that require very little effort to fix, but are still deemed unsafe so long as they go unchanged. Things falling off of the building (like this one) would be a good example.
Not that I'm saying this building is an easy fix, or even that it could be saved without an injection of capital that will never be recovered. I'm just saying that the condemnation in itself isn't always as big a deal as you might think. This building certainly has a laundry list of problems, and a gaping hole in a roof as this one has is probably the #1 killer of buildings.
I have been able to peek inside it - the place is in very bad condition.
posted by OhioKimono on Feb 28, 2013 at 02:33:56 pm #
This building certainly has a laundry list of problems, and a gaping hole in a roof as this one has is probably the #1 killer of buildings.
I have been able to peek inside it - the place is in very bad condition.
The memories in this thread are lovely.
However, it is not an architectural gem ( a la Pythian Castle); it is not in an area anyone thinks is prime for "revitalization (whatever that means); and it is in "very bad condition".
It's time to let go. Pile. Of. Bricks. Preferably thru dynamite rather than 50 years of weather cycles, but the same end will be achieved.
Thank you again for the pictures, OK.
posted by oldhometown on Feb 28, 2013 at 02:56:59 pm # 1 person liked this
Owner neglect killed this place. I wonder if it's just a tax write off for them.....nevermind the blight it is causing now.
posted by OhioKimono on Feb 28, 2013 at 04:31:30 pm #
Nice pix, OhioKimono.
I remember the Park Hotel and Lou's pretty well. Although I wasn't a regular I used to get breakfast there once in a while.
I'm kind of sorry to see the old place go, and then again I'm kind of not sorry. Lou's was the best part about the whole building, and with no Lou's and no hotel, it's an eyesore waiting for the wrecking ball.
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