news-record.com

GREENSBORO — The old Cascade Saloon on South Elm Street may have heard its last call.

After years of trying to get the historic building fixed up or torn down, city officials and downtown leaders appear to have lost patience with the property’s owners.

Last week, the city again asked a Superior Court judge for permission to demolish “the dilapidated and dangerous structure” because “it constitutes a safety hazard.”

Erected in 1896, the three-story building at 408-410 South Elm belongs to the family of Ross Strange, an attorney who practices in Greensboro and lives in Burlington.

Efforts to get Strange to repair the building, which sits between the railroad tracks near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, date back to at least 2001.

“We’re trying to make something happen,” said Terry Wood, the city attorney. “It just keeps getting in worse and worse condition. The city is trying to either get it demolished or repaired. That’s what we are after.”

Officials at Preservation Greensboro Inc. have offered to buy the building — they won’t disclose a price — and find a developer who will make the repairs. But that was nearly a year ago and nothing has happened.

“I don’t understand it at all,” said Marsh Prause, chairman of Preservation Greensboro’s Development Fund, speaking of Strange’s lack of response. “I don’t think he is taking the city seriously. I think he feels the gyrations will just continue.”

Efforts to reach Strange and his attorney, Norman Smith, have been unsuccessful.

Four years ago, when the city initially took the case to court, Strange told the Greensboro Minimum Housing Standards Commission that he planned to sell the property.

“I don’t need these headaches,” Strange testified at the time. “... I just have to sell it. There’s 4,000 buildings in Greensboro that’s boarded up, and they are picking on my building.”

Strange purchased the property in 1974 and for a time printed a weekly newspaper there. In recent years, he used it for storage but whether he’s still using it for that purpose could not be determined.

In 2001, the city ordered the building repaired or demolished. Since then, the matter has been in court twice.

“There is debate as to whether any component of that building could fall on a passing person or fall on a passing train,” said Benjamin Briggs, executive director of Preservation Greensboro. “That’s the biggest point of conflict.”

In 2007, court documents say, Strange and his wife, Ann, deeded the property to their son, Robert, who lives in Banner Elk.

But Prause said this week that Ross Strange “to the best of my knowledge ... is still calling the shots.”

The legal wrangling involves one of the most visible and historic buildings along South Elm.

Named for its first tenant, the Cascade Saloon has housed numerous businesses over the years. In 2006, the City Council designated the building as a Guilford County Historic Landmark.

Such status provides property owners with a 50 percent reduction in property taxes, but it will do nothing to save the Cascade from the wrecking ball.

Preservationists say the interior of the building is so deteriorated that it will have to be gutted, but they believe the exterior walls can be salvaged.

“It’s almost like starting from scratch,” Briggs said, “except the facade and envelope would be preserved.”

Preservationists say that if the court allows the city to demolish the building, nothing can be built in its place. That’s because the structure stands in the 200-foot right of way of the North Carolina Railroad Co., which leases the tracks to Norfolk Southern Railway and Amtrak.

A spokesperson for the railroad said the company supports the city’s position that the building, which stands about 10 feet from the track, isn’t safe.

So if the building comes down, that means South Elm Street would wind up looking even more snaggletoothed than it does now.

“We would like for the building to be renovated and used,” said Ed Wolverton, president and chief executive officer of Downtown Greensboro Inc. “However, in its current state, it is a negative influence for our downtown development efforts. It needs to be resolved. It has drug on too long.”

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com