Ilsa Minor | Daily Press Above, the rubble of Schwalbach Kitchens and the damaged west-side of East Ludington Gallery are shown. Both the gallery and the remaining intact portion of Schwalbach Kitchens, seen at the far right of the photo, are slated for demolition at some point in the future.

ESCANABA — Three months after a fire razed Trinkets & Treasures on Ludington Street, killing a man in an upstairs apartment, little has changed at the site of the fire. A hole remains where the building once sat and neighboring buildings in need of demolition still stand over the rubble.

“We’re trying to get to the point where it can come down,” said Craig Woerpel, who owns 1007 Ludington St., the former site of East Ludington Gallery, which developed a large structural crack as a result of the fire.

The lot that was once Trinkets & Treasures has been converted to sand. To the west, The Beaten Path skate shop sits with its windows covered in plastic. Renovations on that building are ongoing, and according to a post on the business’ Facebook page made earlier this month, the store is expected to reopen at somepoint in the future.

“There is an enormous amount of work to be done on the inside of the building still and then there will be the other humongous effort to put the store back together so we can open for business. There is no set date for reopening as of this time. Please be patient as we are also struggling with all this and doing the best we can,” the post read, in part.

The buildings to the east fared worse. The fire spread to Schwalbach Kitchens, which was adjacent to Trinkets & Treasures, decimating the front half of the building. Save for a small potion of the building at the back of the lot and the front door — which stands completely unscathed — the building has been reduced to rubble.

East Ludington Gallery is located adjacent to Schlwabach Kitchens. According to Woerpel, the intent is to demolish what is left of both buildings at the same time.

“That’s an issue right now, so I’m still hoping by the end of the month that it’ll be started here, but I’m not ready for that so we’ll just have to see,” said Woerpel, who is still removing items from inside his building.

Some of the items Woerpel is concerned with require extra care to dispose of, like monitors from computers used in his multimedia businesses that were stored in the basement. Other items are finding new life elsewhere, like transoms for door frames and windows that will be reused in another downtown business’ renovation, mirrors and a toilet that were donated to a Scout camp, cabinets that were sent to other businesses, and a water heater that made its way to an Escanaba apartment.

“At first, when they first took the cabinets out, it didn’t sit well. I think (it was) because they knew the building wasn’t going to be put back together, but it’s become more commonplace now that we’re able to, you know, figure out where different parts of the building are going to different people,” said Woerpel.

Woerpel, who serves as the Escanaba Downtown Development Authority director, says that plans are in the works to renovate the site of the buildings once everything has been demolished and removed.

“I’m optimistic that we can reuse that property in a new way, and there is movement in that area. We’re hoping that we can combine the properties and come up with a solution or some type of a project for that area, so it won’t be empty,” he said.