When I finally climbed the basement stairs with what I found in the oilcloth, I called the historical society and asked if Martha was still the director, and when Martha got on the line I said, I found what Gus hid in the 1851 wall, and you are going to want to see it today.
The investor had picked up a Depression glass bowl and laughed, told me his group had six buildings, that theyd turn the block into short-term rentals and a wine bar, that if I would not sell theyd get their friends on the historic board to declare my upstairs unsafe.
He did not know what Gus sealed behind the brick with the white X.
In the hollow of the 1851 stone was the buildings original deed and builders record, and with it Guss recorded preservation easement and the papers designating the storefront a protected historic landmark, wrapped in oilcloth so that no investor and no bought board member could ever pretend the place was not exactly what it is.
Gus spent three years restoring the tin ceiling by hand, and he loved that 1851 building like a living thing, so he made sure it could never be gutted. He got it landmarked, recorded a preservation easement, and hid the proof and the original 1851 papers in the wall, and told me where the white X was, just in case.
Martha confirmed it in an afternoon. A designated historic landmark under a recorded easement does not get declared unsafe by a board that happens to know the buyer. The investors whole scheme depended on a board that had no power over a state-protected landmark, and the original deed and builders record only made the designation stronger.
When the investor came back, I did not argue. I handed him copies of the landmark designation and the preservation easement and I said, you told me to think about what Gus would want. Gus wanted this building protected forever, and he did it, in 1851 stone. Its a recorded landmark. Your friends on the board cannot touch it, and neither can you. Put your wine bar in one of your other six buildings.
He set the bowl down for the last time and left. The block filled up with rentals, and my shop sits in the middle of it, the prettiest ceiling on Main Street still over everyones head.
One way or another, he had said, under Guss ceiling. It was Guss way. People still come in just to look up, and now the building that holds that ceiling is protected as long as Galena stands, because a man who loved it hid its whole soul behind a brick with a white X.