The Missing Windows

Ed. Note: Here is another excerpt from an 11/18/2008 article by Bob Uphues in the Riverside/Brookfield Landmark about the imperiled Riverside Arcade Building. The photo below is used with permission of Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga.



Part of the Arcade Building's vintage charm was the art glass windows set into the arched transoms above the plate glass storefront windows. While a couple of the smaller art glass windows (namely, the ones above the south windows of Grumpy's), three others were removed and at least two of those appear to be missing.

In the Preservation Commission's application for the Arcade Building's inclusion on the National Trust's most-endangered list, it is noted that the commission had "discovered one of the three missing historic art glass windows in the possession of a glass contractor."

That contractor told the commission that he heard Wextrust has remaining art glass windows "in storage."

"It is unknown whether the art glass windows rumored to be in storage in fact are safe, or alternately, whether they have been lost or damaged," the application states.

In the meantime, the application notes that "there is evidence of both water infiltration and animal habitation on the ground floor of the Arcade Building."

The building has not been vandalized and the village has now barricaded two ground-floor doors. Incredibly, the doors were left unlocked and unsecured, according to the application.

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