By RICHARD LUKEN - THE IOLA REGISTER

Steve French was bracing for the worst, but was pleasantly surprised the more he worked.

French, who works as a licensed contractor when not busy as Iola’s mayor, was in charge of removing the tin facade over the second-story walls of the Jock’s Nitch building at the intersection of Madison and Jefferson avenues.

The tin had been there for half a century or so, and French was worried what he would find beneath it.

“You just never know what it’s gonna be like,” he said, of the underlying brick’s condition.

French had seen firsthand how messy tin removal can be when he helped pull some storm-damaged tin from the Globe building on the other side of the courthouse square a few years back.

In that case, a recent wind storm had pulled a portion of the tin away from the brick wall, and in so doing, pulled some of the bricks from the wall itself.

“A whole line of bricks had been pulled out and fell back in place,” French said.

The proper repair required use of a masonry restoration company out of Fort Scott, “and it was expensive,” French recalled.

Fast forward to last week, when French began removing the facade — one of the planned improvements to the building announced by owner Phil Minton before Jock’s Nitch opens its doors in November.

Aside from a dozen or so annoyed pigeons nesting in the crevices of the tin covering, the news was good.

As each tin sheet was removed, French found the brick surface largely unaffected.

French suspects the difference between the two buildings was in how the tin was mounted.

The Jock’s Nitch building tin was affixed to metal brackets, while the Globe building tin was mounted on two-by-fours directly affixed to the brick.

The condition of the mortar between the bricks also was a factor, he noted. The Globe building’s mortar had eroded to the point “it was almost like a powder,” French said. “It all had to be cleaned out.”

The mortar in the Jock’s Nitch building is in markedly better condition.

Several passersby watched as French and coworkers meticulously removed the tin and attached awning, revealing the old Trout’s sign and in some areas the word Ramsay.

Trout’s was a women’s wear store for the better part of 20 years, from 1949 until Jerry and Sharon Whitworth purchased the building in 1970 and opened McGinty-Whitworth.

The tin also unveiled another relic of a bygone era, a pair of second-story windows with the name of Dr. Russell Nevitt, who operated an office there after World War II until he built and operated a clinic and 12-bed hospital in Moran until he retired in 1975.

He was among several health care professionals who worked out of the second story through the years.

Nevitt, who died in 1983, assisted in the delivery of 1,500 babies, “including several grandmothers still in the area,” Iola historian Donna Houser said.

Houser was among the onlookers watching as the tin was removed last week.

She has contacted Minton to let him know the Allen County Historical Society would be interested in acquiring the windows if they’re removed as part of the remodel.

Minton replied he was uncertain what would become of the windows. Plans are to eventually convert the second story into an Airbnb, but that may be a year or two away.

THE BUILDING’S history has reflected Iola’s changing retail landscape since it was built in 1901 as a small post office.

Additions and renovations were common. The building eventually became a book and stationery store before a business college opened next door. The buildings were combined and extended from Madison Avenue to the alley.

The Ramsay Brothers ran a dry goods store there in 1912, where it apparently remained in their hands into the 1950s. 

From there, it became Trout’s before the Whitworths came to town in 1970.

They ran McGinty-Whitworth for 46 years until Jerry closed up shop for good in 2016.

From there, the store was used briefly as WaveFire, a gaming venue in which customers would stop by to buy or play role-playing board games and other video games.

After 14 months, WaveFire closed its doors, leaving the building vacant until Trent and Shana Forsyth opened Faith and Farm, a clothing and gift store, in 2019.

That business closed earlier this year until Jock’s Nitch announced in July the sporting apparel store would open a branch in Iola.

Local photographer April Kroenke also will move her photo studio into the building in November.

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