Renovators open up another loft space in Historic Hannibal

Joni and James Wilson are renovating the 1880-era double building at 209-211 Center, which they purchased from Brad Walden last year. They have created residential loft units upstairs, which are already leased. Next, they are focusing on the first floor, which will be commercial space. This photo shows the foyer on the building’s second floor, which has eight doors leading off the small rectangular entryway. Photo contributed by Joni Wilson

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Joni Wilson has enjoyed the process getting to know the building that she and her husband, James, purchased last fall at 209-211 Center Street. It has been fun imagining - over the course of the last 14 decades since the building was constructed - what stores have claimed these addresses as their own, and what professional people conducted business within the second-floor offices. (See accompany history article on page xxxx.)

Joni and James are both retired; she from education and he from farming.

“When my husband retired, he said, ‘Let’s buy old buildings and flip them around.’ We both knew that Hannibal best place to do that.

“I got my real estate license. My husband is really handy; I’m the real estate management side of it.

“We both like to dabble, and at our age (she is 67 and he is 71), we want to keep moving and don’t want to stop. With my connections in real estate and his desire to tear into things, we found this old building and we’re having a blast.”

The building most recently served the home of Ava’s Goldworks. Over the years it has had about as many identities at it has had owners. The Wilsons purchased the vacant building from Brad Walden.

The most long-standing of the renters, over the course of the building’s history, was Judge J.H. Totsch, justice of the peace, who operated out of 211 Center Street from 1913 until he retired in 1944.

Over the course of renovation, the Wilsons have found several artifacts that have given them reason to pause.

One is a key ring bearing the name of J.P. Hinton, Bank of Hannibal.

(J.P. Hinton was cashier for the Hannibal National Bank in 1909.)

Also, there is an old vault, “with a skeleton key which is the size of the palm of my hand,” Joni said.

When starting renovations, the Wilsons first focused their attention on the upstairs. Over the course of years, there have been many layers of paint; there have been renovations with mis-matched doors; and there has been crumbling plaster to deal with. Out of this space, they created residential loft units which have already been leased.

“There is a big foyer upstairs, like old houses have. There are eight doors leading off of it. All the doors have transoms; some have plexiglass and some have glass. They have hinges, but they don’t open any more because they have been painted so many times.”

The foyer has old hard wood floors, “which have been painted and painted and painted. Guilty or not, we painted them again.

“The foyer is a long rectangle, probably a 10 by 15 room, not room for much furniture, just a bench and throw pillows.”

At the rear of the building, there is a patio that extends the whole south side of the building.

Now they are focusing on the first-floor, which will become commercial space.

Joni Wilson shows a key ring found during the renovation, engraved with the name of J.P. Hinton (1860-1926.