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931 State Street, Erie, PA
Home of Andrew BlilaÕs Grocery Store
1865 - 1887
The Blila Grocery Building
(right) as it appeared in 1888,
the year
following AndrewÕs retirement.
(Full-sized Image 160 k)
On February 11, 2011, I had the privilege of meeting the current owner of the building that Andrew BlilaÕs grocery store and cabinet making shop. The current owner, Jason Fultz, is a real estate developer, not unlike Andrew, who owns four major buildings in Erie, and is the owner of three businesses. I contacted Jason early in February and asked for a tour of the building. He cheerfully agreed to meet with me on Friday, February 12th, 2011. I met with Jason in his office on the second floor of the building. He asked about Andrew and his business activities. Then, Jason told me of his purchasing the building and its renovations.
Unfortunately, there were no clear artifacts of AndrewÕs presence in the building that could be attributed to him. The windows and sloped roof line are the same as on his house, but this was common architecture of the late 19th Century.
The block was referred to as the ÒBlila block, northeast corner State and
Tenth streets, 1865.Ó published in the 1896 NelsonÕs Biographical Dictionary and Historical Reference Book of Erie County, Pennsylvania.
Charles A. Bliley
Rochester, NY
The building was completely gutted in 2009 in preparation for its new use.
The interior walls were all removed revealing the framing.
There were no fire stops in the walls.
In 2011, the front of the first floor is a Verizon retail store, the rear a bistro restaurant (Jekyll & HydeÕs Gastropub) owned by Jason. The second floor is a group of offices with an apartment in the rear.
The basement walls were constructed of fieldstone with a three-layer overlay of red exterior building blocks. It is assumed this was for general reinforcement after the original construction.
A third layer of poured concrete was added to the walls in selected areas to support I-beams for a bank vault used by a long-term tenant, Western Union.
The building is 100 feet by 24 feet with two stories.
There was a fire in the building sometime in the past. The joists for the second floor were charred and a second set of joists were placed about one-and-a-half feet above the first set to form the floor for the second story.
There is an addition to the back of the building. Approximately 20-feet deep by 24-feet wide. It does not have a basement. When this space was gutted, the original floor joists were suffering from dry rot and removed. A poured concrete floor was installed to support a small restaurant floor.
The elevated new floor on the second story ends at the rear of the main part of the building. This point on the second floor is located in the middle of a second story apartment and us bridged by a two-tread staircase.
The basement has a poured concrete floor and a man doorway, midway on the southern wall. Jason has not opened it. The sidewalk above is solid.
There was an abandoned steam heat valve and regulator located in the west wall of the basement. Most likely, this was an improvement after AndrewÕs time.
The front of the building was divided into three segments - two vertical windows and a center doorway - during AndrewÕs ownership.
The Blila Grocery Building (right) as it
appeared in February 2011.
(Full-sized Image 86 k)
PDF, 3.6 Mb PDF, 500 k
NOTE:
This article is a work in progress. More research needs to be done.
Charles A. Bliley
, March 30, 2011
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