Hastings Shoe encounters structural issues during renovations

Published 8:00 am Friday, June 13, 2008

It’s been a tumultuous week for Jean and Mark Hastings, owners of Hastings Shoe Service on Austin’s Main Street.

Issues began June 5, as construction crews began exterior renovations as part of a Main Street Project grant, and noticed something peculiar on the building’s south wall.

“They said, ‘Call your insurance man,’” Jean said. “They said, ‘We don’t know what it is, but we don’t like it.’”

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Turns out, clay brick on the outer layer of the wall was decaying to a degree that it was weakening the building structure, according to an engineer, who Jean said told her and her husband that he didn’t know what consequences could befall the store and three upstairs tenants if it wasn’t repaired.

“I thought the sky was falling,” Jean said. “I thought at any second the building was coming down.”

Jean said the engineer couldn’t determine the extent of damage beyond noticeable crumbling on the outer layer of brick. He also couldn’t say long it had been a problem.

“It’s been in that condition for some time,” Main Street Project coordinator Sarah Douty said. “It was not something that wasn’t there a week ago or a month ago. It’s questionable enough that they erred on the side of caution.”

Thus, the Hastings temporarily moved three upstairs residents out, and relocated, temporarily again, to the old South Central Athlete at 209 Main St., the planned site for George’s Pizza relocation from First Street Northeast.

“Everyone is being very neighborly, and helping them out,” Douty said.

Hastings Shoe, which has been in business for 99 years, has a $162,000 project budgeted for the building, work that will include brick, signage and window upgrades, as well as a new roof.’

They are among two others — Flaherty Paint and Healing Palms, owned by the Masonic Temple — undergoing construction as part of a downtown revitalization project financed by the Main Street Project.

Douty said project members will work with them to help with whatever plans are necessary for the wall.

“They’re part of the project already,” she said. “So we’ll just have to sharpen our pencils and figure something out.”

Jean said her building is one of the oldest on Main Street, and that she and her husband have every intention of persevering.

“We’ll survive,” she said. “We’re survivors. We always have been.”

Jean encourages customers to visit the South Central Athlete location for shoe pick-up and sale items.