A businessman with drive

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This article was published 16/12/2006 (6928 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RALPH Ritter took it upon himself to restore his downtown auto service shop to its former glory

The goals of business and heritage preservation often clash in a familiar battle: organizations and politicians call for restoration of an old building, and business calls for public money to help with a chore that benefits only the public. But sometimes it works out completely by accident.

Two years ago, Ralph Ritter bought into the local Tony’s Academy Auto Service franchise. He set up shop at 155 Fort St., where a Tony’s has operated since 2000. The 1928 building was once home to Inman Motors, on a street busy with automotive businesses. Dominion Motors was two blocks away at Graham Avenue, and in between them, a garage operated where the Pyramid Cabaret is now.

Ritter, 38, wanted to attract a professional clientele and liked the downtown location. He didn’t like the building much, though. “It didn’t stand out,” he says. Or, rather, it stood out for the wrong reason: “The outside looked like garbage.” Exterior sandblasting became a priority.

“Three layers of paint were peeling,” says Ritter, “but it was deep — the sandblasting took off five or six layers.” This past August and September, when he saw hints of the original red brick showing through layers and layers painted on by previous businesses, it looked good.

“My first reaction was to ask why anyone would paint over this in the first place, and I said, ‘We’re definitely not painting it again.'”

High on the façade, above the windows and between plain pilasters, the red brickwork frames Tyndall stone detailing once covered in paint. The frames are set apart with “soldier course” brickwork. A sandy grey brick band runs horizontally between the pilasters. The lighter-coloured brick breaks up a tall one-storey building that might otherwise overpower the sidewalk.

Ritter, who has been a mechanic for 23 years, replaced the plastic backlit signage, which also had been painted over. Now, a simple painted wood sign with raised lettering lit by overhead fixtures greets his customers.

After the $10,000 sandblasting job, Ritter did paint the north and east sides to roughly match the original brick. And patchwork on the southeast corner shows redder brick and brighter mortar than the rest of the façade. So it’s not a perfect restoration, but an impressive one considering it cost the public nothing.

Though the building is not on the city’s buildings conservation list or the historical buildings inventory, heritage advocates appreciate Ritter’s effort.

“That guy deserves a medal,” says the city’s senior heritage planner Giles Bugailiskis, unable to think of a similar commercial restoration to such an old building.

Ritter appreciates the heritage angle, too, but says the restoration made good business sense. “The new image does a couple of things we wanted to do exactly,” he says. “We’re right in the middle of downtown, close to a professional clientele from all over the city, and this gives them a clean, respectable atmosphere.”

Ritter says next he’ll have the original flooring inside stripped and refinished, and repaint the interior.

After that, he’ll start to show off his collection of vintage metal signs. He checks online and live auctions to add to the signs he has already from Castrol, Interstate Batteries, Michelin and B.F. Goodrich. “Sometimes suppliers have them and other people have them tucked away in basements,” he says.

By chance, the Tony’s franchise has set a pattern of saving rundown buildings. “It just worked out that way,” says franchisor Tony Pesce, “but every building and business we acquired was in receivership.” The coincidence pays off to Ritter’s satisfaction.

“Buildings that can be used, should be used,” says Ritter. “It’d be a shame to see this place torn down and turned into a parking lot. Think of how many cars were sold and fixed here, or how many people were employed here.”

ian.tizzard@freepress.mb.ca