BELLE — The rock house in Bland located at the corner of N. Lyford and E. Colorado streets was demolished on Jan. 18-19 by Heintz Excavating following the sale of the building from Jeff Weyrauch to Bruce Sassmann. With the fall of the once majestic structure, the town mourned the end of a building with historical significance that reached back to its youth.

Estimated to be over 100 years old,  the building was said to have been built by the Chicago, Pacific, Rock Island Rail Road Company to board workers. The stretch of the former railroad from St. Louis to Bland was completed around circa 1902, leaving many to assume the former Central Hotel was built between the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The former railroad, now known as the Rock Island Trail, was donated to Missouri State Parks on Dec. 14, 2022, as a gift from Ameren Missouri.

After the railroad was completed, the hotel became a women’s boarding house for the local glove factory between the 1920s and 1940s, according to commentators who said women in their family lived in the home during that period.

The glove factory later became a shoe factory before closing its doors.

Mark Heintz began working on the demolition of the building on Thursday afternoon. Due to mechanical issues, he closed the site early and returned Friday afternoon as extreme temperatures entered the region.

As he worked, community members parked along E. Colorado Avenue to watch the historical building collapse, including the site’s new owner Sassmann, and his wife Jan Sassmann. Passersby slowed down to take in the demolition as well.

The building was down by 3:30 p.m. on Friday and pushed into the basement. A fire that started later that night burned much of the remaining debris.

Weyrauch offered what information he could about the historical property he purchased five years ago.

“There were four big apartments that had six rooms each if you included the bathrooms.  Those were on the first and second floor,” he began. “The third floor had two apartments that were smaller and only had three rooms. The basement had businesses at one point but was fairly open as far as floor plan by the time I bought it.”

As the demolition progressed around the building, and the interior was revealed, one of the last architectural features visible the stairwell in the back of the building. Arched doorways marked the entrances to apartments.

“One of the coolest features were the switch back stairs on each end of the building,” Weyrauch said, describing a set of staircases that involve at least two flights of steps facing 180 degrees from each other with a landing platform in between them. “They were quite unique. And the view from the roof was fantastic. You could see all the neighboring towns.”

Weyrauch had dreamed of restoring the building back to its original purpose, but this time for the Rock Island Trail instead of the railroad.

“My plans were to build a wrap-around porch on it and replace the roof with green tin to give it a lodge-type feel,” he said. “I wanted it to be a bed and breakfast for the Rock Island Trail. The interior would have been rustic chic. Unfortunately, my life circumstances prevented me from acquiring the financing needed to take on the project and everyone who offered to buy it just wanted to tear it down. The deterioration had gotten so severe that it just wasn’t practical for anybody to save it at this point.”

The building was heated via a stove in the basement and a four-story brick flu that traveled through the center of the structure collapsed just before the remaining two walls.

Many spectators said once one side of the outer walls was down that it looked nothing like they thought it would.

Residents expressed sadness over the loss of so much local history as pictures of the demolition were posted on Facebook over the weekend. Weyrauch told many commentators that the building was beyond repair. The roof had too much damage and broken windows and vandalism that had never been dealt with had let water in and caused rot to destabilize the bones of the structure.

“I didn’t have the money to revive it and the structure had deteriorated to the point it wasn’t even safe to walk through it anymore,” Weyrauch told one commenter. “I sold it to Bruce and he promptly tore it down.”