The Rochester Warner Family Legacy Day 3

The Sibley Building.  This building took up where the Granite building left off.  Sibleys had been in the Granite building till the great fire.  While the building was left standing  the store had still been gutted by it.  A fire of that magnitude would have normally destroyed a business like Sibleys, but they had one thing going for them.  Long before the fire the company had realized that they were outgrowing the building and had already purchased the land at the corner of Main and Clinton and had hired Warner to design the new building.

So, when they fire was out they looked to the new property and quickly built a temporary building to house the store and with in months were doing business.  What probably saved the company was probably the fact that even though all their records were destroyed, telling them who owed them how much for items purchased before the fire, people came in and still payed about 90% of that money. 

Over the next two years and the current building was built different departments kept moving from place to place within the building as sections were finished.  The original building ended construction were you see the drawing above.  Over the years more floors were added and changes were made to the one they already had.

By the time Juli and I moved here most of the building sat vacant, Its clock tower dormant for years.  Only Monroe Community College and a few small shops remained.  Now, though, that is going through a major renovation.  Its' newest owners are pumping 200 million into it.  From the tower down everything is being restored or renovated into mixed usage space, from retail, restaurant, business and residential.  The roof is even getting a make over.  Some changes have already started happening. 

This is one example of a historic landmark coming back into the spotlight..