The Shadow
The Collins Hotel (circa 1910) across Maple Ave. from the restored C & O Depot in Covington has been reduced to heaps of rubble with only two Doric columns left standing.
Dizzy Garten, the property owner, released a statement to the press that he has a plan for the two Doric columns although he did not divulge any details about his plan for their use.
He also informed the public that it would have cost $15 million to restore the hotel which had become dilapidated in recent years before finally being condemned.
The three-storied brick façade lay scattered in piles along the sidewalk and covered much of Maple Ave. that was blocked off during the razing project.
Garten did not reveal what his future plans are for the property, but he noted that building storage units was not his intention.
In the afternoon on Wed., April 19, one of the wrecking machines was parked in front of where the Collins Hotel once stood while another one of the machines continued to scrape up debris and deposit it into dumpsters.
For more than a century the Collins Hotel served travelers, shopkeepers, barbers, restaurateurs, and other entrepreneurs who located in the building on the street level.
The Doric column is known for its simple circular capitals at the top of columns and is an architectural element from ancient Greece. It represents one of five orders of classical architecture, and Garten has saved the two Doric columns for a purpose yet to be revealed.
