We've had an eye on the former Samuel Machinery building at 135 N. 3rd St. for many years, first bringing the property to your attention way back in early 2012 when it was a blighted building with wonderful bones.

In the past

In short, the building has been sitting vacant for over a decade, with work taking place intermittently since 2007 thanks to litigation that was only resolved in 2013. Shortly after the legal stuff was taken care of, scaffolding went up in front of the building, though construction moved very slowly and experienced several stops and starts. Finally, a couple months ago, the developers took down the upper floors of scaffolding, exposing the restored brown stone. Within the last week or so, the rest of the scaffolding came down. And the building looks phenomenal.

View from Cherry Street

View from the north

First two floors

Upper floors

According to the permits, the building will have visitor accommodation on the upper floors and an undetermined retail use downstairs. You'll notice, the words Bunn & Raiguel are located above the first floor and we'd have to imagine this is the name of a company that preceded Samuel Machinery in the building. The renovation efforts, at least at a glace, appear to be on point, with carefuly restored brown stone, repaired cornice, custom windows, and exposed columns on the first floor. Here's to hoping that whatever tenant takes over on the ground floor can bring a degree of stability that this building has lacked for the last decade. Paging Jose Garces…