I gave away the keys to 214 West 5th street today. The North Platte Catholic Offices, including the Religious Education office, no longer make their home at 214 West 5th in North Platte. It is too easy to say this is the end of an era, even though that is true. The earliest records we discovered while packing indicated that the North Platte Offices were moved to the 5th street location sometime in 1983. While we never owned the building it was home. As I walked through the building for the last time today, the building which has served as a weather station and an office for an insurance company seemed cold even though the boiler continued to pump out way to much heat. That has been one of the building's problems, uneven heating from room to room and floor to floor. A zero degree day would find me with the north facing window open to bring my second floor office temperature back into the bearable range. The 1930's building had a variety of problems serving as host for modern offices including a fuse box that struggled to provide the electricity we needed and window air conditioners that ran up the electric bill to keep the Nebraska summer heat at bay. That building had character I'm want to maintain.
The more recent inhabitants of the west 5th street building laugh at me when I reminisce, "The old building ain't so bad." "It's a dump," someone shoots back.
Over the years twenty three different people worked in the offices on west 5th street. I do have a lot of fond memories of the years I worked out of the building on west 5th street. I look forward to creating memories working out of the new South Poplar building as well.