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Downtown building getting a facelift

CHANGES IN STORE — Steubenville’s Historic Landmarks Commission approved a Certificate of Appropriateness for Zito Parakaleo LLC, new owners of the Huntington Bank Building on North Fourth Street, to remove an unsightly metal awning from the terra cotta structure. -- Michael D. McElwain

STEUBENVILLE — The city’s Historic Landmarks Commission signed off on a Certificate of Appropriateness for a downtown developer to remove a metal awning from the front of one of their buildings.

The awning is an add-on to the Huntington Bank Building at 100 N. Fourth St.

“It’s not original to the building,” said Zeph Swope of Zito Parakaleo LLC. “I’m not sure the exact year it was installed.”

Swope said the firm “doesn’t want to do anything crazy, change colors (or anything like that). We just want to return the building to its original constructed style.”

Zito Parakaleo acquired the building in 2020, a deal Swope said they couldn’t pass up — not just the opportunity to be part of a downtown revitalization movement, but also because activities like Nutcracker Village and First Fridays on Fourth have demonstrated the appeal the downtown area can have.

“There just seems to be good synergy there,” he said.

Swope said Dorham Sinclair built the Hungtington building, “He was kind of an interesting person to look to, he did it for this community.” He said the original terra cotta, if properly preserved, will be beautiful as well as historical, and he said they’re going to have it inspected to make sure it’s secure and, if necessary, repairs will be made.

“I think at this point, we really want to make sure the building is safe and as much as possible (as it was originally). It’s not a facility that needs additions to it, we just need to take down something that was added to get it back to its original state,” he said.

He told commissioners the firm’s plan all along has been to safeguard the building’s historic qualities, while trying to revitalize it.

“I think a nice start would be the exterior of the building and restoring the original design.”

With the commission’s blessing, Swope said the contractor will be able to proceed with applying for a demolition permit to get rid of the awning.

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