Demolished: Fultondale’s oldest building gone

Published 2:19 pm Wednesday, August 1, 2012

On Monday, Charlotte Ward sat and watched a crew destroy what was Fultondale’s oldest standing building.

“I could cry,” she said as she watched the Hawkins B. Carter American Legion Post 255 building slowly being turned into a huge pile of rubble.

Ward has been a member of the American Legion Auxiliary for 17 years.

Since a tornado rendered heavy damage to the American Legion building in April 2011, the organization and its auxiliary club have been meeting at the Tarrant City American Legion Post 113 facility.

“They’ve been real gracious to us,” said American Legion Post 255 Commander Ron Johnson. “They have welcomed us and been really good to us.”

It is unclear when the Fultondale building was constructed, but bricks inside the structure have the year 1923 stamped onto them, according to Patrick Hendon with Meredith Environmental, the company demolishing the building.

He said the site will be cleared of debris in a week, if all goes according to schedule.

Fultondale Fire Marshall Scott Fassina said his grandfather, Johnny Fassina, and great-grandfather, Tony Fassina, built the building and ran a general store out if it for many years.

“They were operating it during the Depression,” Scott Fassina said. “Several people out here couldn’t pay, but he would feed them anyway.”

Fassina said his father, John “Jake” Fassina, took over the store in about 1958 and closed it in 1962.

“There are a lot of memories there. I hated to see it go, but at the same time I noticed how easy it came down,” Fassina said, adding that the walls “crumbled like sand” under the backhoe.

The two-story, 10,000-square-foot building was at various times in its history a feed store, hardware store and a co-op, according to officials.

Johnson said the American Legion bought the building in 2000 from the Elks Lodge.

Prior to purchasing that facility, the veterans organization met in the adjoining building that recently housed the Oysters & Stuff restaurant.

The American Legion still owns the property; Johnson said the organization has not yet decided what to do with the site.

It is certain the organization will not build back there, though; they have purchased property at 1838 Carson Rd. North, just outside Fultondale’s city limits in unincorporated Jefferson County.

Don Vaughn, a former Post 255 commander who is now the finance officer, said the group was to approve final plans this week on a new 5,000-square-foot building to be constructed at the Carson Road location. He said the new building should be complete by early 2013.

“It’s been a long, drawn-out process for us,” Vaughn said. It took months for the American Legion to get through the insurance process, and leaders of the club found themselves at odds with Fultondale city leaders over zoning and other issues.

“It served its purpose for us Legionnaires,” said Vaughn about the building. “It served us well. But we’re moving on.”