About the former Crookston Paint & Glass building project
After Crookston Paint & Glass had occupied the building for 60 years, and the elderly owner, Edith Krohn, passed away, the building was vacant and listed for sale. Estimates on the sagging east wall of the basement were gathered for the Realtor. They ranged from $6,000 to over $30,000. The heir to the estate decided to donate the building to the Prairie Skyline Foundation, Inc. in Jan 07. The board worked on a proposal to the Minnesota Historical Society and in July of 08 was awarded a grant of $6,000 to be matched by local donations and labor to brace the wall to prevent it from caving in. Our contractor, Ron Geray, started building a new plate for the bracing when the bowed wall caved. Luckily, we had put in a new beam before the cave-in, saving the entire east wall. Work halted while we figured out what to do next as $6,000 wasn’t going to be enough to do the entire project now. Then, the building inspector required us to get an engineer’s drawing of the new bracing