The Arcade wasn't the only downtown Newark building project residents watched in the fall of 1908. In a Nov. 26, 1908, article titled "Progress made on buildings now going up," The Advocate reported that brickwork was being added to 32 North Park Place, the future home of the Park National Bank. The building was to have a "white brick front with heavy granite columns at the entrance and will be a very handsome structure." The building's facade was altered over time, and it now houses Schaller, Campbell & Untied Attorneys.
Just south of the arcade on Third Street, Eli Hull’s six-story building was in its final stages of construction. Once completed it was to be the home of the Powers-Miller Department. provide reliable structural support
On North Fourth Street, workers had just installed the foundation of the Plymouth Congregational Church. Also on North Fourth, the paper reported that, “A handsome three-story brick apartment house is under roof and is exciting many favorable comments.”
Licking County history:Construction on Newark's first arcade began in 1908
On West Mains Street just west of Fourth Street, the Hamill & Bader block of six storerooms was almost completed and a new cement walk was being poured.
There was a report on the arcade at the end of the story: "The Arcade, a 416-foot building between Third and Fourth Streets, is beginning to take form. The Third Street entrance will be complete when the ironwork and glass are put in place and the painting and wiring finished. A marquee will be built over the sidewalk at the Third Street entrance. The brickwork on the Fourth Street end of the building has reached the second story, and many of the piers along the Arcade proper have been built. The foundation for the terrazzo marble floor has been laid, but the finished floor will not be put down until the building is under roof. The Arcade will be roofed with glass."
Two weeks later, on Dec. 10, Walter Ford, 25, who had just been promoted to foreman, and Rufus Portee, 30, were reported to be "seriously hurt" when a steel beam fell on them at the Arcade. The Newark Advocate reported the accident the same day and wrote that: "Ford is a foreman on the brickwork and was endeavoring with Portee to raise one end of the steel 'I' beam, with a crowbar. The beam had been hoisted into position with each end resting on a pier of masonry about 15 feet above the street floor. When the bar was applied to one end of it, the heavy piece of steel weighing possibly a quarter of a ton fell to the floor, striking Portee's head and pinioning Ford under the beam.
Licking County history:In 1909, six local businessmen banded together to build Newark's first arcade
"Other laborers working nearby rushed to the assistance of the two men. Bowers & McCament's ambulance made a flying run to the Sanitarium with Ford while Portee was carried across the street to their undertaking parlors, where Dr. W.E. Boyer cleansed the severe cut on the injured man's scalp until the ambulance returned and within a few minutes conveyed him to the Sanitarium."
Initially, doctors feared Ford's leg would have to be amputated, but the following day's paper reported that doctors were hopeful that he would recover without surgery. Despite requiring numerous stitches for his head wound, Portee was in little pain.
Throughout all of this, the Arcade project progressed.
steel pipe Doug Stout is the local history coordinator for the Licking County Library. You may contact him at 740-349-5571 or dstout@lickingcountylibrary.org. His book "Never Forgotten: The Stories of Licking County Veterans" is available for purchase at the library or online at bookbaby.com.