Divine Lorraine laundry building windows filled with concrete block | Photo: Peter Woodall
Even the Hidden City Daily has a touch of Divine Lorraine fatigue. Maybe that’s why we didn’t notice that the City sealed the building extra-tight sometime over the last few weeks following the hubbub over the March 22nd “Repair or Demolish” L&I notice posted on the building.
The City said the scary L&I notice was a necessary procedural step toward sealing the building and billing the owners, who had defaulted on their bank loan. Thankfully, that turned out to be the case. The City used concrete block to seal the second floor windows of the main building, and the first and second floor windows of the laundry building, which had been a point of access.
The building had been open to trespassers for several months until a small fire prompted the City to act. Much as we’d like to think an article in the Daily urging the City to seal the building had something to do with the decision, the timing was no doubt coincidental.
It’s really disappointing that the City would issue a “repair or demolish” notice to force the sealing of the Divine Lorraine, but they wouldn’t do the same for the Buck Hosiery site. We obsess over an iconic building like the Divine Lorraine, but this city is full of many other dangerously decrepit buildings that need attention.