Cook: Building for the times we live in

Salisbury must have been booming at the beginning of the 20th century. Two of the stateliest buildings downtown went up in that first decade.

Made of Italian marble, the Rowan County Administrative Offices building on West Innes Street was originally a federal courthouse — quite a plum for Salisbury.

The seven-story Plaza building on the Square started as the Grubb Building and for many years was the Wallace Building — Salisbury’s skyscraper.

Both opened for business around 1910. Just think what a prosperous and bustling time that must have been for Salisbury and Rowan — a time of soaring aspirations.

Plans are underway now for two more important buildings to serve the community. Neither will be grand. But years from now they’ll say something about our town and this era, just as the county building and Plaza bear testimony to what this place was like around 1910.

The new buildings will show what we have been dealing with in the years around 2012 — and how we rose to action.

One is a new shelter for Rowan Helping Ministries — driven by concern for those in need.

The other is the central office for the Rowan-Salisbury School System — fueled by commitment to education.

Someone quipped that the two projects were a study in contrasts; he didn’t think the school headquarters was needed nearly as much as the homeless shelter.

He should walk the crowded, uneven halls of the central office building on Long Street in East Spencer.

• • •

Interesting that local donors have come up with nearly $5.5 million to build a 20,000 square foot homeless shelter and rehab the old one.

Meanwhile, county commissioners have OK’d spending $6 million on a central office expected to be at least twice the size of the shelter.

Original plans called for the central office to be 62,000 square feet and cost $9.4 million, including interest. Commissioners disagreed with the school board and each other on the location and the amount of space that was needed. Finally they effectively threw up their hands, approved the $6 million and told the school board to make it work.

Mind you, this is not a chunk of cash out of the county’s fund balance. School officials jumped through all these hoops just to get commissioners’ OK on financing. The payments are supposed to come from the school system’s capital budget.

Will school officials scale back the building to fit a $6 million budget or find other sources of money? They will probably have to do both, knowing that local donors have already been tapped for $5.5 million for one of the city’s worthiest causes.

• • •

Behind the scenes of these two developments, a lot of maneuvering has taken place. Raising $5.5 million in the wake of the Great Recession is an enormous feat — a miracle, as head fundraiser Paul Fisher puts it. The miracle on Long Street.

Mustering forces to squeeze an OK from commissioners for a central office was nearly as unlikely. The county put off dealing with the issue for more than two decades, and recent years have hardly been a time of soaring aspirations.

Another miracle on Long Street.

Rowan Helping Ministries will have tangible results for the people it serves. Meals will be served. People will be counseled and helped. Cots will be filled.

The central office in and of itself won’t raise test scores. But the Long Street office had deteriorated to the point that something had to be done. The city and county school systems merged more than 20 years ago; it was beyond time to bring at least the two main offices under one roof so they could be administered more efficiently and safely.

• • •

What might Rowan County look like 100 years from now? The subdivisions along N.C. 150 could be on the National Register of Historic Places — and still outside the city limits. Salisbury could sit in the center of the Charlotte-Triad metropolitan area, linked to other cities by light rail.

Or maybe people will be transporting by then, as in “beam me up.”

And historians might put the pieces together about life here in 2012. They’ll figure out that as we were recovering from the Great Recession, the community built a sturdy, environmentally-friendly homeless shelter to help those in need, and a central office to operate the schools more efficiently.

Salisbury must have been a very caring, practical community back in 2012, they’ll think. Two of the most-needed buildings were built.

• • •

Elizabeth Cook is editor of the Salisbury Post.