George Gardner, Rockwell, N.C.
♦ My opinion is not meant to hasten the demise Empire Hotel, but rather a plea to preserve it. I have great memories of Montgomery Ward being in this location. Actually I have memories of the one here in Salisbury and the one in Kannapolis. Montgomery Ward, or “Monkey” Ward as my aunts and uncles affectionately called it, was the “big box” store of my youth.
I remember my parents taking me and my siblings there to get school clothes, before school would start in the fall. This was the first stop for Christmas shopping too. We would save up our money just so we could buy something at Montgomery Ward. My dad bought all his mechanic tools there. Every time I see a Powercraft tool I remember my Dad. He also bought appliances, auto parts, farm supplies and much more there.
I have no memories of the Empire Hotel and Montgomery is long gone. I would love to see it restored to it’s former grandeur, with some small shops, a museum and and some kind of residence. The sad truth is if you don’t use it, you will lose it. I’ve seen people hang onto things with hopes of restoring them, but for some reason or the other they never get around to it and it would deteriorate to the point that it would be worthless. I would much rather see it dismantled and some examples of times past salvaged and possibly used in a new building, instead of suffering the sad fate of the Kilby Hotel in High Point.
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Re: Will Salisbury’s Empire Hotel Suffer the Same Fate as the Kilby Hotel in High Point?
Lisa Snider, Salisbury, N.C.
♦ The South Main area of Downtown Salisbury requires rehabilitation and in many cases being torn down and starting fresh. The collapse of the Kilby Hotel in High Point needs to serve as a warning that some buildings, because of either structural defects or advancing deterioration, need to be torn down for the sake of the community.
If the Empire has not been open to the public since 1963 isn’t that telling us something very important? No matter if its called obsolete or undesirable, the Empire Hotel should be on a priority list for demolition along with many of those decaying buildings on South Main.
If some individuals want to preserve history and are calling the Empire Hotel such, let them take photographs, brick souvenirs, and old postcards and place them on public display at the either the Rowan Museum or in the History Room in the Rowan Public Library. Time to move on.
