Goodbye Green Monster

Greenville landmark building will be gone soon

by John Boyanoski

Published: Dec. 30, 2009, 1:38 p.m.

Jeff Zaglin offers a simple explanation for the piles of combat boots, helmets and the other military supplies that have accumulated inside the building at the corner of Main and River streets in the West End.

“We don’t throw anything away,” he said. “We just move it around.”

For close to 40 years the final destination for many of those items was the two-story building at 708 S. Main St. It’s been called the Greenville Army Store Annex because it serves as storage space for the military surplus store across the street and the green monster because of a dark green paint job Zaglin gave it more than a decade ago.

The building will be demolished in the coming weeks.

In its place will be a four-story structure that will resemble the current building, which dates back to 1869 or 1871 depending on the historian, with its brick front, large windows with the oval tops, and wide frontage. The new building will also occupy the site of an adjoining building Zaglin is demolishing.

Zaglin said he and developer Stephen Mack had hoped to take down the building slowly over the next few months to save as much brick, wood and flooring as possible for reuse.

However, the city stepped in several weeks ago and said the building was not safe and needed to come down immediately.

In the past three months, he has cleaned out the building, which he called a labor of love.

The foam rubber that is the Army Store’s hallmark has been moved into the top floor of the retail store. Many out of fashion, but still usable coats, socks, gloves and other cold-weather gear were given to local charities such as Triune Mercy Center and SHARE. Items such as vintage decks of playing cards were given to friends and other West End merchants.

He’s looking for places to send what’s left. He has sorted most of the remaining items into cardboard boxes. Large military knives in one. Helmets in another. Canteens and shovels. Rows of coats and knapsacks are stacked on a wall. In between, there are other oddities. A bowling trophy from the 1960s. Old college textbooks. A vintage cash register. The black African granite casings from the former Memorial Auditorium. The granite is a problem.

“That’s my pile of misery,” he said.

Zaglin said this is about one-twentieth of what was in there three months ago.“Everyone said I never knew what was in here,” he said. “But they forgot I put it here so I knew where it was.”

The building started as a dry goods store, and the second floor grew popular as a  meeting place. In 1876, state Democrats met there to discuss a platform to get Wade Hampton elected South Carolina governor and end the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War.

The building eventually became a grocery store, and was once a Dixie grocery store, a predecessor of the Winn-Dixie supermarket chain.

It later became a five and dime called Emery’s – a 1960 city business license from the store is still stapled to the hoist elevator shaft at the back of the building. The elevator may be incorporated into the new building. Workers recently got the hand-cranked elevator to run again.

“That was probably the first time in 40 years,” Zaglin said.

The adjoining building was a former drug store (the mosaic-style tile is still on the floor) that the Zaglins bought in 1972.

Zaglin started to reconsider use of the site in 2005. The initial plans were rejected by the city Design and Preservation Commission in 2006 citing historic preservation concerns.

Another plan was rejected in 2007 and the Zaglin family sued the commission, which was the only way to appeal the decision under city law at the time. A new plan was worked out through mediation.

In April 2008, the commission approved the $6 million project, a mix of retail, offices and condominiums. The lawsuit was dropped in May.

In the past few months, the green paint was stripped from the buildings, revealing the original reddish brown color. Zaglin removed the pressed tile tins from the ceiling and plans to take up the wood floors for the new development.

Clean up will last until late January. Construction will start later in the year. Zaglin has mixed emotions.

He wants a new building, but he will miss the old one.

“It’s like a death in the family,” he said.