ROCKINGHAM — The former post office and Richmond County administration building located on South Hancock Street will go up for sale in a sealed bid auction at 2 p.m. on Nov. 25 through Iron Horse Auctions.
A sealed bid sale means that the potential buyers will not see each other’s bids. The highest bid will go before the Board of Commissioners for approval. The county administration staff began moving out of the building in May 2017 and into their current building at 1401 Fayetteville Rd.
Building maintenance staff were the last to move out, remaining there until February of this year. They have since been operating out of the old Jenkins gas building, according to County Manager Bryan Land. On Thursday, maintenance staff were moving out some of the last materials from the building.
The former admin building was dedicated in 1934 and its cooling system was installed in 1963, which the Daily Journal reported in 2017 is far from being in compliance with current regulations.
John Stevenson, president of the Richmond County Historical Society, told the Daily Journal that the issues with the building include that it is not handicap-accessible, it was made with asbestos, all of the electrical work in the building needs to be redone and it needs a whole new air conditioning system, putting the cost of restoration at “millions of dollars.”
Land said the county admin staff were moved into the new building — among other reasons — to save more than $2,500 per month in utility costs.
Stevenson sent a formal letter to the Board of Commissioners in 2017 stating the Historical Society’s interest in preserving three New Deal-era oil paintings, two bronze lanterns on the outside of the building and several sections of the Art Deco sandstone trim at the top of the building, regardless of what the county decides to do with the building.
It is unclear if the Historical Society will have access to these features once the building is sold.