Renovation of Pollock House set to resume
http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/sep/30/renovation-of-pollock-house-set-to-resum/
Is the university still planning to tear down the inn that was added to the back of the mansion?
Quote from: AllanY2525 on September 30, 2011, 05:18:28 AM
Is the university still planning to tear down the inn that was added to the back of the mansion?
That portion is gone. I believe it was demolished last fall.
Here are some old photos of the Porter Pollock mansion.
The first photo is the original house, designed by Charles Owsley. After porter and Mary [Wick] Pollock
moved in, the house was added onto - MORE than once from what I have read about the mansion online.
Charles Owsley was brought in again to redesign the house. There is one other photo floating around on
the Internet that I've misplaced - it shows the house with a large, wooden "veranda" style front porch
that wrapped around the front and right sides of the house, and the tower was not yet made of stone,
but rather wood frame construction - it must have been one of several stages the mansion went through
along the way.
The second photo was taken in the 1950's, I don't know when the remaining photo was taken.
I wonder if they will bring back the large window between the bay window and stone turret on the second floor? (Considering they had to chop the cost down to $2.2 million, I guess that might not happen. :P)
OK... here's the other photo of the Porter Pollock mansion - showing the old wooden porch and turrett
before the stonework was added to the house....
When they say "the house has been added onto several times" - they really MEAN it..
By the time the university finsihes the restoration work, the house will have had more lives than
a siamese cat..... and it's one of a very few of the old Wick Ave. mansions to survive - which makes
it historically valuable.
I hate to see them blow ($2.2 M ?) on such a small project - but eliminating the "housing allowance"
for the present and all future university presidents will give them a return on investment. The other
benefite, of course, is having the place all fixed up - and being occupied at least partly as a residence
on campus for the university president. It will be nice to see the place with someone actually living
there. The ground floor adds usable space to the campus - which could be used for a lot of different
things. Hopitality stuff like banquets, meetings, parties, formal dinners, entertaining visitors to the
university, etc.
I do think they didn't get enough bids on the contracting work, ie: the demolition of the hotel
addition at the rear of the place and then the restoration work. 2.2 Million is too much to pay for
the work being done.
LOL
:)
The roof on the turrett looks like a whole lot of wasted space according to the last photo you posted.
The last photo strikes me as the earliest of the photos because there is no stonework on
the exterior,,,,, this is probaby the way the house was when Paul Wick gave it to his
son in law, Porter Pollock and his daughter Mary Wick. (Don't have the date handy)
I'm guessing that the photo showing all of the stonework, but the main house still
smaller in size, is the second version of the house and then the expansions were added to
the left and rear sides of the house later.
Quote from: Towntalk on October 02, 2011, 04:57:42 PM
The roof on the turrett looks like a whole lot of wasted space according to the last photo you posted.
I doubt that was one of the family's concerns at the time. The concept of form following function--in architecture--hadn't been thought of, yet.
Thanks for the research Allan. I wish more of Youngstown's Victorian architecture remained.
It's obvious in the first and second remakes that they were getiting away from the traditional
Victorian style - getting rid of the porch and the tower re-make in stone, and the additions.
I found later articles in the Google archives that referred to the house as Italian style - this was
after it had been redesigned and added on to.
Work continued on the building this week.
??? What are they going to do with it? I've said for some time, they should have set up hospitality courses for YSU. A friend of mine, has a grandson who went to Hocking college, in Nelsonville. He had to leave, because it got to expensive. This would have been nice for him.
1. The Pollock House will be the home of the YSU President period end discussion.
2. YSU does have a hospitality course again period end discussion.
The reason for the period end discussion is because it has been addressed here and in the news numerous times since the decission was made.