Greenfield citizens have banded together in hopes of revitalizing their town over the next few years. The Greenfield Revitalization Project is starting one building at a time. They hope to revive and rehabilitate a downtown building.
The former home of a harness store in early 20th century on the northeast corner of the square has mostly sat dormant over the last two decades and is in need of serious repair. The group hopes to kick start funding for the project this weekend with a special event at another recently rehabilitated Greene County landmark.
GRP Vice President Jenny Hoots says the Cash Bash at Walnut Estate just outside of Carrollton looks to be a fun way to raise money to help the building project: “Basically, what [the Cash Bash] is, is a reverse raffle where everybody has purchased a ticket ahead of time. We put their name in a big drum, and then, ever so often [throughout the evening], we will call names. Each time, someone’s name gets marked off of a list. At the very end of the night, the last name to be called is our grand prize winner of $2,500.” Tickets for the reverse raffle are now completely sold out as of Friday evening. Hoots says you’ll have to come to the event and get in on the numerous auction items up for grabs.
Hoots says the funds raised will go towards one phase on rehabbing the late 19th Century building: “It is one of our more historical buildings that is not past repair. It is definitely in the worst shape, but not beyond repair. Our project right now is to save that while we still have the opportunity. We are already locked in this Spring to put on a new roof. Then, our next step after roof replacement is to tuck point the entire building. That’s basically where the money raised from this event this weekend is going go. If anybody knows anything about tuck pointing, it’s not cheap; and when you are doing an entire two-story building – every inch in between every brick – it’s pretty pricey. So, we can definitely use all of the help we can get.”
Hoots says that there is interest in getting a business in the building as soon its repaired: “Right now, I think the goal, and there has been some interest in it being like a coffee shop or somewhere you can get a sandwich and coffee, drinks, something of that nature – we have had interest with people who were interested in starting a business in the building. They would rent that space from GRP. That’s what we are looking at right now. Then, in the upstairs area, the idea has been possibly an AirBnB situation in the future. Really the point is to just get the building to a state where we can do something rather than having it just sit there and keep deteriorating and potentially be a safety concern in the future. We just want to get the building back to where there is options of what we can do with it.”
Doors open for the event at 7PM at Walnut Hall Estate, formerly the Rainey Mansion, just east of Carrollton. Local band Borderline will provide entertainment starting at 8. It’s a $10 cover charge to get in the door. If you can’t get in on the reverse auction, there will be silent auction and live auction.
Hoots says if you would like to get involved with the Greenfield Revitalization Project, you can find them on Facebook.