Local developers prepare for expansion after buying Dodd Building, but Second String Music plans to stay

QUINCY — Rodney Hart and his wife Sheryl moved Second String Music from Eighth and Washington to the first floor of the Dodd Building on the northeast corner of Fifth and Maine in July 2012. Hart said the building was in “rough shape” when they bought the entire building a year later.

“We took a huge gamble on this building,” Hart said. “The back corner of the roof was leaking massively and caving in. When we had rain, this whole back area (of Second String Music) was just flooding. We managed to sort of stop that, but we eventually put a new roof over the second floor. Then we did a lot of improvements and added HVAC (heating, venting and air conditioning).

“This building was really decrepit, and I think in another year or two, it probably would have been unusable. We got it up and running with five tenants.”

The Harts aren’t getting out of the music business, but they sold the building to HM Capital LLC, a partnership of Quincyans Brian Hendrian and Andrew Mays, at the end of October for $280,000, according to records in the Adams County Recorder’s office.

Two wedding businesses to move into second floor

Second String Music will remain as the anchor store on the first floor as it has since July 2012. The Adams County Democratic Party has its headquarters at 503 Maine, and 505 Recording Studio, 505 Maine, is on the second floor of the building. An original bank safe in the basement is leased for storage.

Mays said DP Construction, 123 N. Fourth, will renovate other floors, repair the roof and add a fire escape. His wife, Laura, plans to move her wedding stationary studio, Invited by Lamaworks, from 107 N. 10th to the second floor. Sara Elizabeth Weddings, a wedding planning business owned by Sara Reddick, also plans to move from 107 N. 10th to the second floor.

Mays and Hendrian plan to establish an office for their real estate investment company on the fifth floor. They have plans to close Friday on an eight-unit residential apartment building in the 800 block of North Seventh.

Mays hopes an elevator with a Hollister Whitney carriage car installed in 1920 can be made operational again.

“Rodney has taken me through that building probably a half dozen times over the last five years, just because I’ve always just really liked it,” Mays said. “I’ve just always really liked old buildings. I grew up in Quincy, and I like being part of the downtown. I was kind of tired of paying rent, it’s a good investment and I like doing something with Brian. There are lots of reasons (to buy the building).”

“Andrew has had his eyes on this building for a long time,” Hart said. “I remember him coming in here maybe four or five years ago, just walking around.”

Building was the tallest in Quincy for 30 years

Mays said hopes additional renovations could include residential space on the third and fourth floors. Once the design phase is complete, construction will start in January. The move-in process will start in May or June.

Hart, a former newspaper reporter, did extensive research into the building’s history. A brick structure built in 1840 at the corner of Fifth and Maine was removed several years later, and Hattie Dodd had a five-story structure built in the same spot in 1897. She named the building in honor of her father, John Dodd. It was the tallest building in Quincy for 30 years.

The structure, designed by Ernest Wood, cost $20,000 to build. The original dimensions were 100 feet on the Maine Street side, 24 feet on Fifth Street, and 70 feet high. The building was remodeled after a fire in the early 1920s. An addition built on the north side along Fifth Street next to what is now the parking lot Schuecking’s Men’s Wear.

“Originally, there were five storefronts in the building,” Hart said. 

Harts wanted to make sure building was locally owned

Mercantile Bank bought the building in 1905 and remained there until the early 1960s. It became a popular place for attorneys to have their offices, and it also was the home for a jewelry store, a florist, dentists and doctors.

“When (Mercantile Bank) left in the 1960s, that began the slow decline of the building,” Hart said.

Hart says he and his wife have no plans to move their music business from Fifth and Maine. They wanted to make sure the building would remain under local ownership.

“We had a lot of people go through this building, but we weren’t going to sell it to another lawyer from Chicago who didn’t give a crap about it,” he said. “We wanted somebody local who actually cares about Quincy to take it over. You sell it to some guy from California or Florida or whatever, and you don’t know what’s going to happen.

“We’ve taken this as far as we can go, and we are excited Andrew and Brian are taking over. The difference between nine years ago when we got down here and now is night and day. Quincy has a long way to go to to establishing a more vibrant downtown, but we’re on the right path.”