The north facade of a vacant downtown Rochester building failed in Thursday afternoon’s windstorm, sending debris crashing to the street below. A car parked below the crumbling facade was damaged, but nobody was hurt.
The building was the former Hotel Richford at Chestnut and Elm Streets. It was converted to an office building sometime in the 1960s and has stood vacant for at least the last decade. On Thursday, the panels covering the original brickwork on the north side of the building came loose. Police and fire crews blocked off Chestnut Street between Broad Street and East Avenue, and a crew hired by the building owner went to work Friday morning removing the damaged panels and securing the facade.
The Richford at 65 Chestnut Street was a long-term residential hotel in the 1950s, later converted into an office building. It was to be the next project for the Cambria Hotel chain after their planned renovation of the former Hotel Cadillac just up the street, but those plans seem not to have moved forward.