Building back Calumet has made significant progress over the years to redevelop several sites in the village. At 211 5th Street sits the Ruppe building. The site was built in 1869, and a third floor was installed in 1890.
And over time mother nature took its toll on the structure. It’s a wood-framed building, and nature does a number on those types of structures. But the importance of this building starts with the facade. It’s kind of a symbol of Calumet. It’s a very large building in the middle of downtown. – Jeff Ratcliffe, Executive Director, KEDA
After J.C. Penny moved out of the building in the 1980s, the site was left relatively untouched. Unfortunately being left alone allowed water to seep in through the roof, saturating the structure’s wooden frame.
For the community losing this facade would leave a very large gap in the downtown. We’ve already lost three buildings in the 100 block from a fire. And the loss would hollow out the downtown. – Jeff Ratcliffe, Executive Director, KEDA
The village hopes to save the building and encourage development in the heart of downtown.
And they don’t make facades like we have downtown anymore. This is an opportunity to hold onto that facade. The goal is to stabilize, and we’ve done that. We have, in an interim phase, stabilized the building. So that we can prevent the building from collapsing readily. – Jeff Ratcliffe, Executive Director, KEDA
The Save the Ruppe project seeks to raise 200,000 dollars to stabilize the structure for development. So far the project has raised close to 30,000 dollars from local stakeholders and has invested close to 50,000 in restoration efforts.
We have more work we have to do to stabilize the balance of the building. And then our goal would be to, what we are calling, restore the building. So that would entail removing about half of the building, the back half of the building, putting new walls in the remaining half, and a new roof in the front half. – Jeff Ratcliffe, Executive Director, KEDA
KEDA Executive Director Jeff Ratcliffe says Phase One stabilization will take a community effort. The project hopes to complete most of phase one by the time the leaves begin to change color. Phase two expects to restore the property and prepare it for redevelopment in the third phase when the village can find an excited developer to take on the site’s redevelopment in Calumet.
This Thursday the Bring Back Calumet project will host a volunteer day at the Ruppe building to clean out some refuse already piled up. Those interested in helping with the project for a couple of hours should contact Nikki at KEDA to learn more.
The cleanup day will start at 3 pm on Thursday. Learn more about the Save the Ruppe Project online. Contact Nikki at (906) 482-6817
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