A Rockdale couple has submitted a $100,000 cash bid to purchase the 125-year-old former Rockdale City Hall with an eye toward beginning a $4-million fund-raising effort to restore the historic structure to its Victorian-Era glory.
Collier and Peggy Perry submitted the bid Thursday, the only one received by the City of Rockdale as it grappled with the question of what to do with the building, which had served as Rockdale’s police station until the town’s new PD was completed last year.
“The mission of this endeavor will be to fully restore the building to its original fineness and to create ongoing businesses occupying the building and adjacent lot for generating sales tax for the city and activity downtown,” the bid document states.
The bid includes the former Phillips & Luckey Funeral Home property behind the Old City Hall.
$4-MILLION—The Perrys’ proposal puts the total cost of restoration at $4-million and emphasized the restoration won’t start until the entire sum is raised.
The bid noted that the next two years are viewed as organizational citing the COVID-19 Pandemic and the anticipated US 79 work during that period.
“We will try to build enthusiasm for the restoration project and set the stage for a national fund-raising campaign,” it states.
“It will take time to find people capable of establishing the restaurants and the outdoor music venue envisioned,” the bid continues. “If we have the funds available to start restoration construction when the US 79 work in completed, we will feel fortunate.”
FIRST YEAR—Activities envisioned during the first year of ownership by the Perrys include:
• Engage (RHS graduate and Sharp native Stan Graves and Architexas as the architect for the project.
• Commission a 3/16th-inch scale model of the restored building.
• Purchase imaging rights from the University of Texas History Center.
• Develop a website with the domain name CatchTheRockdaleVision.org.
• Engage an attorney and designate the creation of a non-profit foundation to own the property.
• Start looking for an entrepreneur, or entrepreneurs, to create a four-star destination dining restaurant, a bakery, a sandwich shop and an outdoor music venue, all using the same kitchen but dedicating the entire building to those ends.
• Get insurance in place.
• Mow the grass.
• Make cosmetic repairs to the building to keep it from deteriorating further.
BELL TOWER—The building’s most distinguishing characteristic—which will be a part of the restoration—with its original bell in place—is it central bell tower.
According to the bid it is envisioned fourth and fifth-graders will be allowed to climb the tower and ring the bell as a “rite of passage,” then each student will be presented a replica of the building with a key to the city, signed by the mayor and the message: “This city belongs to you. Take care of it.”
The proposal states money donated to the project will be placed in an interest-bearing bank account and will be spent “only if the project raised enough money to complete the restoration.”
Pledges made would be called upon only if enough money is raised to complete the project. If that does not happen, all funds would be returned with interest.
The Perrys said they will provide all pre-construction funds necessary.
COUNCIL—A some point the city council will act on the future of the building.
In July, Holly said the city council was approached by a then-anonymous donor offering $100,000 to purchase the building.
HISTORY—It’s certainly one of the most—probably the single most—historic building in Rockdale.
In the town’s early years its upstairs auditorium was Rockdale’s large gathering place and was the site for political meetings, social events and even Rockdale High School graduations.
That second floor meeting room also housed basketball games for the RHS Tigers and “Tigresses,” as the girls team was then known.
“There wasn’t much room and some of the out-of-bounds lines were right against the walls,” 1930s girls coach Mable Lene Graves Hamman told The Reporter during a visit in the 1990s.
“When there was a crowd up there for a big game and people got to yelling and stomping their feet, there were times I was sure the floor was going to fall in,” she said.
In the mid-1930s “anti-Victorian architecture” period, City Hall underwent a major remodeling that provided, among other changes, a firstfloor fire station fronting on Burleson Street. Most of the second story, including the auditorium-gym was lopped off and the building lost its characteristic towers.
SUICIDE—Perhaps the building’s most infamous moment came early on the morning of Feb. 19, 1938.
Night watchman C. S. Landis had a little office in City Hall, where he would return after making rounds.
Just after 1:30 a.m. he checked in on a nearby office where City Secretary J. Branch Lewis had been working late. In fact, Landis had seen a light in Lewis’ office about midnight.
At 1:30 the light was off. But Landis made a shocking discovery.
Lewis, 65, was dead from a pistol shot to the head. His hand still clasped the gun.
Justice of the Peace Leo Harris was called in to investigate. He ruled “death by self-inflicted gunshot.”
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