New roof will help keep old building upright

Brothers Tom and Kenny Brink have been working recently to add a new roof to the old Arion Post Office building located on 2nd Street in Arion.

Tom bought the building from their aunt, LaVonne Brink, who owned the building after the post office closed in December 2004.

LaVonne was the postmaster in Arion until her retirement in 1987.

“We’re just putting a roof on it so it will stay together,” Tom said of their project.

“The roof was getting bad,” Kenny said.

They both agreed that it was worth the effort to save one of the older buildings in town.

According to the Crawford County Auditor’s Office, the building is listed in county records as having been built in 1900, but they are unsure of the date due to conflicting information in other sources.

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The Brinks removed several rows of bricks from the top of the building’s façade to facilitate installation of the new roof.

Some of the bricks carried the imprint, “Nuvogue,” which was the name of a type of face brick made by the Boone Brick, Tile & Paving Company, of Boone in the early 1900s.

Tom and Kenny have been doing the work on the building.

They planned to work on the back of the roof on Monday, but the day’s high winds put an end to those plans.

The brothers don’t intend to open the building as a business, but they do plan to keep it in use.

“We’re going to use it for storage and try to keep it standing upright,” Tom said.