University opens doors for Wick Pollock Inn preview
Leonard Crist
Issue date: 10/19/04 Section: pageone
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For six years, the tables inside the Crystal Room dining area of the Wick Pollock Inn have collected dust on their settings, waiting patiently for someone to sit down and enjoy a meal.
"It was sort of like walking on the Titanic," Youngstown State University President David Sweet said, describing the first time he entered the inn, "because, here you have this history that was in front of you, but it wasn't functioning."
Sweet opened the inn Thursday morning to show the Jambar and a local television news reporter the current condition of the building as well as its potential.
YSU recently settled a lawsuit with First National Bank of Pennsylvania, which will allow them to move forward with reopening the inn by later 2005 or early 2006.
The inn, located on the corner of Wick Avenue and Spring Street, has been closed since 1998, when declining business forced the former leaseholder, the Pollock Inn Restoration Association, to shut its doors. FNB foreclosed on the lease to the building after the inn's closing, and YSU retained ownership of the property.
YSU will pay FNB $500,000 for the lease.
The Wick Pollock Inn has four components: the original Pollock House mansion, built in 1893, which has 14 guest suites; a large addition, which has 16 suites and 48 rooms, that was added in the 1980s when the building was converted to an inn; the gardens; and the stables.
"While its been closed for six years or so, you still see the beauty of the woodwork and the kind of facility I'm sure it was in its heyday," Sweet said.
The mansion and the gardens will be at the core of YSU's restoration mission, Sweet said.
Sweet said he believed the former developers confronted the reality of a shrinking market and were stuck with a building that was too big to be profitable. Part of YSU's strategy will be to determine the proper size for the inn to be economically viable to operate.
"This is a historic treasure. The mansion component is going to be the core around which we build," Sweet said. "The added-on facility, I think, is going to be subject to review."
"It was sort of like walking on the Titanic," Youngstown State University President David Sweet said, describing the first time he entered the inn, "because, here you have this history that was in front of you, but it wasn't functioning."
Sweet opened the inn Thursday morning to show the Jambar and a local television news reporter the current condition of the building as well as its potential.
YSU recently settled a lawsuit with First National Bank of Pennsylvania, which will allow them to move forward with reopening the inn by later 2005 or early 2006.
The inn, located on the corner of Wick Avenue and Spring Street, has been closed since 1998, when declining business forced the former leaseholder, the Pollock Inn Restoration Association, to shut its doors. FNB foreclosed on the lease to the building after the inn's closing, and YSU retained ownership of the property.
YSU will pay FNB $500,000 for the lease.
The Wick Pollock Inn has four components: the original Pollock House mansion, built in 1893, which has 14 guest suites; a large addition, which has 16 suites and 48 rooms, that was added in the 1980s when the building was converted to an inn; the gardens; and the stables.
"While its been closed for six years or so, you still see the beauty of the woodwork and the kind of facility I'm sure it was in its heyday," Sweet said.
The mansion and the gardens will be at the core of YSU's restoration mission, Sweet said.
Sweet said he believed the former developers confronted the reality of a shrinking market and were stuck with a building that was too big to be profitable. Part of YSU's strategy will be to determine the proper size for the inn to be economically viable to operate.
"This is a historic treasure. The mansion component is going to be the core around which we build," Sweet said. "The added-on facility, I think, is going to be subject to review."