Two Somerset buildings dating back to early 1800s have new owner and a facelift

Judy D.J. Ellich, The Daily American
·4 min read

SOMERSET ― Ever wonder what is happening with the old brick buildings at 140/150 West Union St. in the borough? Do the bricks that fell out of the wall in front of one of the buildings mean demolition? How old are they anyway?

Another angle of the building at 140 to 150 W. Union St. in Somerset Borough.
Another angle of the building at 140 to 150 W. Union St. in Somerset Borough.

The Somerset County Redevelopment Authority staff was thinking the same thing. The buildings had been on the market for some time. The authority had heard there were threats of demolition.

So, the authority bought the property from Svonavec Inc. for $25,000. Then it went in search of grants to inspect the property and help upgrade it while keeping its three tenants.

The authority applied for a construction grant through the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.

In the fiscal year 2022-2023, the commission awarded the authority $83,348 through its Keystone Historic Preservation grants to help historical and heritage organizations, museums and local governments.

This fund, supported annually by a portion of the state realty transfer tax revenue, awarded a total of $2.58 million in grants to 21 counties. The official history agency of Pennsylvania, the commission awarded 48 grants selected from 101 applications requesting a total of $5,695,564. Grant amounts ranged from $5,000 to $25,000 for project grants and $5,000 to $100,000 for construction projects. All grants require a 50/50 cash match and were awarded through a competitive selection process.

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The buildings are not historic in and of themselves, he said. What can be noted is historically the buildings managed to escape various fires that raged through uptown Somerset in the late 1800s destroying many a building, making them among the oldest buildings in town. Moreover, 140 and 150 West Union St. are contributing buildings of the uptown historic district, Spochart said.

The way into Music From the Heart, a tenant of the Somerset County Redevelopment Authority's recent acquisition.
The way into Music From the Heart, a tenant of the Somerset County Redevelopment Authority's recent acquisition.

So, the authority did something for the first time in its existence. It bought a building as a landlord. There is a two-and-one-half story on one side, a two-story on the other end, connected by a one-story building that makes up the property.

"This is our first time the authority got real estate above the ground," Spochart said.

The authority is known for helping with municipal projects underground such as water and sewer pipelines. Anything above ground is usually part of eliminating blight, which often means acquiring the property before demolishing it.

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The Redevelopment Authority of Somerset County, created in 1956 under the Commonwealth’s Urban Redevelopment Law of 1945, took a hiatus in 1965 and was reorganized with the county commissioners in response to the Johnstown Flood of 1977 that year, and became responsible for overseeing a special bond issue that the Legislature had enacted to help more than 400 flood victims in Cambria and Somerset counties.

Since then, the authority has been involved with various projects across Somerset County. One of its partners for financial support is the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. This national program provides annual grants on a formula basis to states, cities and counties.

CDBG has three national objectives, low- to moderate-income beneficiaries, blight remediation and urgent need. The blight remediation category has a limit of 30% of available grants.

The Somerset County authority has been able to obtain the needed 50% matching funds for the commission grant with CDBG's acquisition and historic preservation funds under the blight remediation objection. Somerset Borough offered to give the authority $83,000 from the municipality's CDBG's money for the project, Spochart said.

Familiar barber Barry Dietz takes care of customers in one of the buildings at 140 to 150 W. Union St. in Somerset Borough.
Familiar barber Barry Dietz takes care of customers in one of the buildings at 140 to 150 W. Union St. in Somerset Borough.

Just over $166,000 will be used for the exterior to replace the roof, gutter and masonry and replace the doors and porches.

"We are working through some other ideas, nothing solid yet, such as weatherizing the exterior," Spochart said.

The authority already has three tenants who have been in the buildings: a music program that uses several of the rooms in one of the buildings, a longtime barbershop and a dog grooming service that opens on the backside of the buildings. There is room for at least one more, Spochart said.

"In November of 2022 as the business grew and expanded the redevelopment committee was able to provide us with an excellent space to grow Music From the Heart and reach more students in Somerset County," said Britney Hay, owner and tenant. "The building is important to us because it provides more opportunities to our small town business in Uptown Somerset," she said.

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The current tenant's rent basically will cover operational costs, Spochart said. So the authority is looking into more financial possibilities for changes to the interior.

Grooming in one of the oldest buildings in town.
Grooming in one of the oldest buildings in town.

Currently, the authority is doing conceptional planning for rehabilitation of the interiors as part of those possibilities, he said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Two Somerset buildings dating back to early 1800s have new owner and a facelift