Landmark Bresee Sign Preserved

With Ruff House End, Demolition Near Over

By JIM KEVLIN


The huge landmark sign, “Bresee’s Oneonta Department Store” that adorned the Wall Street side of the establishment for a half-century was removed Tuesday, Jan. 21.
By the time you read this, the former Ruff House, a former saloon on the other side of Wall Street, should have been razed as well.
The last building to go – the brick structure, across the alley from NBT Bank, which used to house Bresee’s kitchen department – should likewise be gone in a day or two.
That leaves some additional reinforcing of the back wall of the remaining building – the original 1895 Bresee’s Department Store, which fronts on Main Street – and that should be it, Rick Eastman of Eastman Associates, which handled the project, reported in recent days.
But by next Wednesday or Thursday, the job that began before Thanksgiving should be complete.
“There were no surprises,” said Eastman, who had honed his crews’ demolition skills by razing the former two-story SEFCU headquarters in Sidney, after the credit union opened a new building last fall.
Nonetheless, he allowed, “we had some obstacles to get around.”  For instance, the C&D landfill in Western New York that had been taking the debris used up its 2010 quota in December and couldn’t take anymore.
Eastman’s crew covered the material on site until, after Dec. 31, a new quota-year began and it could be shipped out again.
The fate of the hanging sign – 30-40 feet tall – had been a matter of concern for the Greater Oneonta Historical Society and local preservationists, but it appears those concerns have been allayed.
With former department store owner Mark Bresee acting as intermediary, an unnamed individual had come forward and offered to store the sign until an eventual use can be decided upon, according to Bob Brzozowski, GOHS executive director.
There is some hope, he said, that the sign, refurbished, might again hang on the side of Bresee’s when the remaining building is renovated into shops, offices and housing over the next year, but nothing has been decided yet.
The Otsego County Economic Development Office, which is overseeing the project, expects to be sending out bid packages to prospective developers in the next few days, according to Carolyn Lewis, that office’s director.