John Schenne, the Buffalo, N.Y.-based engineer who owns the old Bradford Armory building, is looking for a bit of help.
He’s been all over the state and hasn’t been able to find a picture of the original doors of the Armory.
“Every picture that has the doors, they are set back in and in shadow, and you can’t tell what they look like,” Schenne said.
The armory was dedicated in November of 1912, and the original wooden doors were removed when it was remodeled in 1969. Schenne has tried to track down the doors, but to no avail.
More importantly, he said, “There was a leather-bound book that was printed for the Armory.” It had all the historical details and photos in it. While the book was meant to stay at the facility, over the years, someone took it.
“I would offer $1,000 to somebody to see that book, no questions asked. If they wanted to sell it, I would offer more money,” Schenne said.
“It was printed by the Department of Military Affairs for the state of Pennsylvania,” he explained. However, the department didn’t keep a copy of it for their archives.
Schenne is hoping someone has old photos in their family collections that might have a clear image of the Armory’s original doors.
He has been working on the building since he purchased it at auction in 2014. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places, and Schenne, who served as a colonel in the National Guard, hopes to eventually turn it into a World War I museum.
“There’s not a whole lot going on there now,” he said. “I’ve got an office in there for my engineering company, for when we do projects in Pennsylvania. There’s a reference library and a bunch of equipment.”
He’s also acquired the Pringle Powder Company building a few doors up from the Armory, and has been working on that, too.
“I recently bought the Pringle building because the Armory had almost no parking,” Schenne explained. “Now we have more flexibility.”
He said a lot of work has been done on the Pringle building so far. “It’s a major task. It would be easier to do if I was richer,” he said with a laugh.
Schenne said in his research on the old Armory, he found a lot of advertisements about its early use as a community center of sorts.
“They used to have roller skating in there on Saturday afternoons for 20 cents,” he said.
One of the difficulties with the old building, and one of the reasons the National Guard moved out, was the lack of handicapped accessibility.
“It’s very difficult to make a building handicapped accessible,” Schenne said, explaining an elevator would be required. “It’s well beyond my budget right now.”
Work is continuing on the Pringle building, and will until the weather turns. Then, Shenne said, they will work on the interior of the armory over the winter.
