November 19, 2014
History comes tumbling down
By Lee Coleman
A piece of Hazen history met its demise last week when the old Loewen house on Central Avenue, known as the oldest stick house in Hazen, was demolished by Union State Bank to make way for possible future endeavors of the bank.
The 75x140 foot lot, first owned by the Wernli family in 1916, will be turned into a lawn area.
“There wasn’t any insulation in the walls,” said USB President Chuck Stroup. “The cost of remodeling the house was too extraordinary to make that investment. It was very altered from its original design and it would have been impossible to restore it to its original state.”
The bank has owned the house for 12 years after buying it from the Loewen family after 50 years of ownership.
