The Lagonda Club building was built in 1895 as a club for the wealthy elite of Springfield. It sat between the exclusive High Street residential area & the central business district. When built, Spring Street was not the hideous concrete gash it is now. As tastes in recreation & neighborhoods changed & Harry Kissel's Ridgewood development developed, the wealthy elite moved north & the Springfield Country Club was started.
In later years WBLY set up shop in the building. The studios were used in the late 70s / early 80s for a recording studio by a guy who wound up with Merlin Productions. In 1975 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1988 Art Wilson bought it & apparently has had no use for it til now.
Pepsi is sponsoring a contest that will award grants for "people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact." Mr Wilson is hoping to get one of those grants by promising to renovate the building as a "gathering spot for youth". (We used bus stops in my day) He has set up a website.
Call me cynical but I have a hard time believing this. I have seen too many scams & do-nothing building owners in Cincinnati. Counting on winning a soda pop company's contest isn't a real sound business plan. Letting a prominent building sit for a generation certainly doesn't inspire much confidence in a person' civic mindedness.
Anyway, I hope I'm wrong, it would be great to see this building restored & used again. Voting starts April 1, so vote early & often.
Noose Son story here.
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