Judging by some comments on social media, the city hates old buildings and wants to see them all destroyed.

Of course, others believe even historic structures must from time to time be removed for public safety.

I’m talking about the building at 350 College St., located to the north of Father Paddy’s Irish Pub and south of Dead Cat Alley and Wells Faro Bank.

Over the past month, College Street, between Court and Main streets, had been closed as demolition crews did their work. College reopened late last week.

It wasn’t something anyone wanted to happen, but it had to for public safety.

The demolition has its roots at a February hearing of the Woodland Planning Commission, where an “Alterations Request” was made for 427, 429 and 431 Main St., (basically the old Roth and Sears buildings), which owners want to convert into an event venue on the first floor and apartments on the second floor.

Those three addresses are connected to another building at 350 College St, which was also part of the remodeling.

The Commission approved the changes with little comment.

However, a few months back, the city learned the 350 College St. structure was unstable. Demolition requests in the Downtown Historical District typically come before the Commission for review, but not this time because the structure was deemed a dangerous building by the Chief Building Official on Sept. 20, based on structural evaluation and site inspection.

As such, no amount of remodeling would improve its stability. That came after property owners, according to city officials, evaluated the renovation potential of 350 College and deemed it unfeasible based on “prior ownership neglect and the interior gutting of structural elements of the building.”

In brief, over the years, previous owners did their own work on the structure and caused it to become unstable.

“The structural evaluation similarly concluded that the cost to renovate the structure would exceed the value of the property after renovation,” according to city staff.

Planning staff requested a historical evaluation of 427, 429 and 431 Main Street and 350 College Street in August 2023, in anticipation of those building renovations.

The analysis concluded that, “The building at 350 College Street no longer conveys its historic association with the original livery stable, due to the extensive alterations to its east and north facades. The building likely also has serious structural issues as a result of the demolition of the south two-thirds of the building, the filling of all its original window openings, and punching new window openings and several doors throughout the building …

“It should also be noted that restoration of the exterior of the building’s ground floor may be acceptable if it can be returned to its original architectural characteristics. This would be very costly and likely prohibitive for 350 College Street,” the report stated.

The analysis concluded that, while not eligible for National Register of Historic Places or the California Register of Historical Resource as an individual property, “350 College Street marginally appears to retain enough integrity for it to remain as a contributing resource on the Downtown Woodland National Register Historic District with its period of significant being 1913, when the building was converted to a rooming house or hotel.”

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Too many renovations were made over past years, effectively leading to an unstable two-story structure that had to be brought down before it decided to crumble on its own.

Jim Smith is the former editor of The Daily Democrat, retiring in 2021 after a 27-year career at the paper.