Monday, February 23, 2015

Old Columbia warehouse becomes new arts center



Don Murphy knows a diamond in the rough when he sees one.

For the third time, Don and his wife Becky have converted an old building on Locust Street in Columbia into a new use.

Their latest project converted an abandoned warehouse at 224 Locust St. into a home for the Susquehanna Center for the Creative Arts, which had been two blocks away.


“The front space will be used for a gallery, and we created studios in the back to lease to different artists,” Don says. “It’s exciting to see how much will be going on here.”

The Murphys purchased the property for $55,000 two years ago.

When the couple initially walked into the circa 1900 warehouse, they were a little shocked at the state of the property, Becky says.

“I said, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and my jaw just dropped,” she recalls. “You could see it was a beautiful building, and they had just let it go.”

“When we first saw the building, it was a disaster,” Don says.

The first task was repairing the floor upstairs, which had so many holes and soft spots, it was impossible to walk on, says Don.

The ceiling had caved in at places throughout the 18,000-square-foot space as well.

Now it’s used to house inventory for another one of their companies, DMC Products, which wholesales lawn and garden planters.

Next, the Murphys began focusing on the first floor this past fall.

They concentrated on fixing up the place, while staying true to its history.

The structure originally was a tobacco warehouse. It housed a number of other businesses in later years.

“This building has a lot of character, and we wanted to restore that,” Don says. “Keeping intact whatever we could in the building was a goal.”

Using a team of contractors, the Murphys refinished the original hardwood floors throughout the warehouse.

“At one time, they had been covered over with linoleum, so there was a lot of glue residue,” Don says. “We used a lot of sandpaper.”

They also unearthed original brick interior walls, which had been painted over years ago, restored original radiators, expanded an existing bathroom and added a new one, keeping the original wooden door and door frame.

For Becky, replacing the building’s front windows was a priority, adding lots of natural light to the gallery, while original lead glass was kept for interior windows that separate the gallery space from the rest of the warehouse.

When the original items couldn’t be used in areas of the warehouse, Don focused on bringing in items that fit the building’s history, including 70-year-old light fixtures that originated in a factory.

“Don is the king of eBay,” Becky laughs. “He did thousands of searches for things.”

The building had no running water and no heat. It needed sewer repairs, too.

“Thirty years ago, the owner locked the door and let this building sit,” Don says. “We had to take something dead and bring it back to life.”

Murphy estimates the renovation cost $120,000.

Once they had purchased the building, the couple discussed a variety of ideas for what it should house.

“We had so many ideas of what could go in here,” Becky says. “We talked about a restaurant. We talked about a bar.”

At the same time, Don struck up a conversation with Bob Troxell, a local artist who was renting an apartment from the Murphys.

Troxell and his art partner, Milt Friedly, were looking to relocate their studio and thought the warehouse space would be perfect.

“We liked the history, the architecture, the openness of the space,” Friedly says.

“The high ceilings are very attractive to show artwork and also great for the studio spaces. It gives us a sense of roominess.”

Troxell and Friedly were actively involved in the renovation process, making suggestions for the best way to use the space while keeping the original feel of the building.

“The building has so much character and history to it, it would be a shame to go in and rip that out,” he says. “Our goal was to keep the charm.”

Friedly says the building also was appealing because only half of the space is being used now — allowing plenty of room for expansion.

“We’ve talked about having classes and different workshops, bringing in local, regional, national or international artists who could come in and do a workshop for a day or a few days, or a week,” he says.

With Troxell and Friedly bringing a kiln in the back room for firing pottery, and two etching printing presses in the front for printmaking, there’s no shortage of the kind of art that can be created in the warehouse, says Friedly.

That makes the space ideal for the Susquehanna Center for the Creative Arts, a collective of artists with a mission to promote the arts through outreach, education and exhibition.

Right now, the studios are used by several visual artists and as rehearsal space for the local rock band Heroes 4 Ransom.

The gallery will open officially on Columbia’s Fourth Friday, Feb. 27.

The timing couldn’t be better for a new art gallery and studio space in Columbia, Friedly says.

“Right in the neighborhood where we are, it’s a really neat neighborhood,” he says.

“It’s great to think of more people coming in and seeing what we’re about and to really get the energy going in the town.”

Columbia Mayor Leo Lutz says the warehouse conversion signifies a trend in the town.

“It’s another adaptive reuse of these vacant buildings we have had in the downtown area that are slowly but surely filling up with new things,” he says. “It’s wonderful for Columbia.”

Lutz says while some may see vacant warehouses as a challenge, the Murphys view them differently.

“Don is one of our local young entrepreneurs who’s doing quite a bit to transform the downtown area,” he says.

“People might see these buildings and wonder what can be done with them.

“But Don’s been finding a use for them. It’s really nice to see, and I’m hopeful that it will help us get people to come to Columbia to spend time downtown,” says Lutz.

Don and Becky previously converted a bank building into a medical imaging center with luxury apartments upstairs at 369 Locust St. and renovated another building into a location for Farmers Insurance at 401 Locust St.

Don says his projects are all part of that goal to attract more people downtown, noting that both he and Becky grew up in the town and want to see it prosper.

“We can really see the potential of Columbia,” he says. “The time is right to be doing something like this.

“The movement toward revitalization is here.”

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