ST. GEORGE — Travelers on State Street in Hurricane might have noticed something missing from the corner of 100 West. A barber shop, a Mexican store, a small engine repair business and a house are now gone from the block.
Last Tuesday, Hurricane City crews razed the buildings — all city-owned — in preparation for the finalization of downtown redevelopment plans. In the meantime, the empty lots will be used as additional space for more vendors during the upcoming Hurricane City Peach Days, Aug. 30-Sept. 2.
The building’s last residents included Tom’s Clip Joint and Lightning Archery as well as a house to the west of the buildings. The basements of the demolished structures are to be filled and leveled until future plans for the city’s redevelopment of the downtown area are approved, said Hurricane City Planner Fred Resch.
“The council has not yet made a final decision on what will happen on that corner,” he said.
Over the years, the buildings housed a Zion Cafe, a small engine repair shop, a Mexican market, a sandwich shop and several other businesses that came and went over the decades.
“There were many businesses over the years,” said Hurricane Valley Heritage Museum’s Phyllis Lawton. “A couple of them were cafes.”
Travel blogger Jacob Barlow wrote about his travels through Hurricane’s historic district in 2021, noting that many of the buildings, barns, stables and granaries constructed between the years of 1906 to 1940 still can be seen throughout the town.
“The Hurricane Historic District includes a concentration of public institutional buildings in two blocks along 100 West, between State Street and 100 South,” Barlow wrote. “Most of these are red brick PWA Moderne structures that were built in the 1930s.”
According to the Institute of Historic Building Conservation, Public Works Administration, or PWA Moderne, is a style of architecture many rural Americans experienced in the 1930s and emerged during the Great Depression.
“Also referred to as Depression Moderne, Works Progress Administration Moderne and several other variations, including P.W.A. Moderne, Federal Moderne, Classical Moderne and Stripped Classicism, this style was incorporated into many public works projects as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal relief initiative,” the conservation website states.
Tom’s Clip Joint was run by former Hurricane Mayor Tom Hirschi for 40 years. His son, current Hurricane City Councilman David Hirschi, said his brother Micheal ran a small engine repair shop, Lightning Archery, from 2008-18 in one of the other demolished businesses.
“Mike and Dad were really lucky to be working next to each other in the end,” he said. “Dad started cutting hair in that building in 1978 and retired in 2018. The whole family has a lot of memories in that building.”
Beginning in 2002, Tom Hirschi served as mayor of Hurricane for 12 years. In 2021, he died due to natural causes, according to a previous report by St. George News.
The bid for demolition was awarded to Stratton Construction. When the job was carried out, David Hirschi was grateful when a friend called him to watch the demolition process.
“Scott Stratton called right before the teardown and had me come pick up an old barber’s chair they found in the attic — I really appreciated that,” he said. “There weren’t any tears shed, just a lot of contemplating.”
Hurricane Mayor Nanette Billings said the city purchased the property more than 20 years ago, along with adjacent properties, with plans for redeveloping the downtown area in the future. On Aug. 8, those plans started taking shape with the demolition.
“The property was originally owned by the Hall family of Hurricane,” Billings said. “One of the first places there was a restaurant the high school kids would go to for sandwiches. And Tom saw hundreds of customers on a weekly basis in his old clip joint. A lot of good conversations took place in that building.”
Although memory provoking, the buildings were also in a major state of disrepair, Billings added.
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