Fire damaged PPG office building to be demolished
May 2—An abandoned and fire damaged former office building from the days when Pittsburgh Plate Glass was operating at full force in Kokomo is being demolished.
The Kokomo Board of Public Works and Safety on Wednesday unanimously approved an emergency demolition request from the city's Inspection Services for the building at 635 S. Ohio St.
The building suffered fire damage in October 2022. Since then, there have been no major improvements to the building, and its condition has further deteriorated.
The Inspections Services Department has deemed the building "dangerous and unrepairable." In addition, squatters were spotted inside the building about a month ago, Chelsea Matlock, of Inspection Services, told the board.
The building has been vacant for several years but was a commercial building in the recent past, including an antique store at one point.
It was once part of the city's thriving plate glass industry that took off after the Indiana Gas Boom of the late 19th century.
Built in 1920 during a company expansion by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, the building housed company offices, according to Tribune and Howard County Historical Society archives.
At the time, PPG was the county's largest employer, owning dozens of acres of property on South Ohio and neighboring streets. The area at the time was known as the "Plate Glass District." PPG ceased its glass making operations in 1931.
PPG reacquired most of its old sites in 2010, when it enrolled the property in Indiana Department of Environmental Management's voluntary remediation program.
Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich.
