Construction work on the Jack’s Bar building has been going on since this summer. This work is being done to remodel the building and reopen it as the Bank Saloon. The building was in rough shape when they started, and they needed to gut the entire place down to the stone walls. That was done over the summer, and now they are starting the work of building a new interior structure.
The stone wall of the building still has a noticeable lean to it. A support structure was built along the south sidewalk so that the wall doesn’t collapse while they’re working on it. A new structure is being built inside, that one day will support the stone wall from the inside.
The entire front wall of the building has been removed except for a couple of pillars. These large openings used to be mostly made up of windows. When they’re done, the walls here will be able to slide open on warm nights to allow fresh air in the building.
Several parts of the building are braced so that they don’t collapse. The ornate pillars seem to be being preserved, at least for now.
The sidewalk is closed during the work, but the support scaffolding was built to let workers still walk through.
Here you can see the lean of the south wall. The wooden wall, I assume, is perfectly plumb. The stone wall leans enough that there is a sizable gap between them, especially at the top.
They are building a similar framework at the north end of the building to hold that wall up.
The building looks so open and airy like this. The block wall halfway back is going to be a separator that will split the building into a public bar at the front and offices and conference rooms at the back. I don’t know how much the winter weather is going to affect the work without a roof on. So far there aren’t any big storms on the horizon, but I don’t know what their timetable is for getting a roof on the building. I’m sure first snow will come before the building is completely enclosed.
Some of the plaster is still attached to the interior side of the stone walls.
The building looks mostly the same from the outside. The point of doing all this work is to preserve the stone walls and the historic profiles of the building, so there shouldn’t be too many changes out here.
The empty lot behind the bar is being used as construction staging.
The building looks pretty much the same from the back, too.
There’s quite a bit of work left here, and who knows how much weather delay there will be this winter. But I’m glad to see this much work done already and this much progress being made. After being closed for nearly two decades, it’s good to see something happening with this building.
