Demolition is underway on the Lee’s Drug Store/Momma Antonia’s building at Broadway and Poplar Streets in downtown Centralia.
Foundation Board Chair Dave Agee says the building was recently purchased by the Centralia Foundation.
“We acquired the property about a month or so ago to join the park and just put the pieces together,” said Agee. “Hopefully by the end of the fall it will look a lot different.”
Agee says the landscaping overhaul of the rest of the park that occupies nearly a city block around the Carillon Bell Tower is now complete and the park reopened to foot traffic.
“The landscaping was just done this spring,” Agee said. “It’s going to take a year or so for all these flowers and plants and trees to mature. The way it was designed, we should have color in the park all the way through three seasons. That’s going to take a little time to mature, and we’ll adjust as time goes by.”
Lee’s Drug store, with its lunch counter, was a Centralia institution for decades. At one point, the upper story housed a number of doctor’s offices. After Lee’s closed, Momma Antonia’s moved into the building and operated for several years before closing.
The foundation now owns the entire city block around the Carillon Bell Tower with the exception of the Gherardini and Feeney and Feeney CPA buildings.
Photo by Tim Ferguson.
