A Sad Story from My Hometown - Fremont, Nebraska

An article in the Fremont Tribune, the newspaper of Fremont, Nebraska, my home town, indicates that what is probably the tallest "office" building in the downtown area has fallen into disuse and disrepair and may wind up being torn down. See: It could take a lot to make 505 sparkle As much as I would hate to see this building be torn down, it would be just the latest in a long line of
of building losses in a downtown which has been deteriorating since the 1960s. The city leadership should have taken positive action to maintain and inprove the downtown when the "Fremont Mall" went in 40 some years ago. Instead, many buildings were torn down and many of those lots remain vacant or are now only parking lots. Deterioration of the downtown was also sped up by the events of Jan 10. 1976 when the Pathfinder Hotel was destroyed in a natural gas explosion. In my opinion, this former First National Bank building (now called the "505" Building, its address being 505 N. Main Street) should have been - and perhaps still could be - converted to living space on its upper levels, with the first level remaining retail. I hope the city and its leadership can come up with something to utilize and preserve this building.