COSHOCTON − A list of items and photos are now online for an auction featuring contents from a home once owned by the late Jim Hale, former proprietor of the Pastime Theater.
The auction will be at 10 a.m. Aug. 20 at the Coshocton County Fairgrounds by auctioneer Paul D. Bratton. A preview of the sale is available at coshoctonauctions.com under the current auctions tab. Most of the items are antiques and collectibles with many coming from the theater.
Up for bid will be tin toys, Coca-Cola memorabilia, old vending machines, antique coffee grinder, baseball cards, lunches boxes, movie posters, corn grinder, a print die for the Coshocton Tribune from April 21, 1968, and much more.
Bratton on the auction website said items are still being unpacked and catalogued. Mayor Mark Mills previously said the sale was estimated to bring in more than $20,000. Proceeds will go to the Coshocton County Land Reutilization Corporation, commonly known as the land bank. The land bank currently has close to $130,000 in its coffers and uses the money to buy properties, raze structures and other expenses.
The land bank acquired the property in March. The home at 1802 Chestnut St. has been torn down and the land sold to adjacent property owners Richard and Debbie Taylor. It was the site of the rape and murder of Brianna Ratliff in April 2021.
Also found in the Hale home not in the auction was two 35mm film canisters containing a documentary from 1940 called “The Coshocton Story.” It was last screened in 1970 at the Pastime Theater, according to an old newspaper clipping Coshocton County Treasurer Janette Donaker has. It features interviews with school children, church members, service groups, Main Street business owners, city officials and others. Donaker said they have yet to find someone who can digitally convert the movie.
The old Pastime Theater building at 538 Main St. was acquired last summer by the Coshocton Port Authority and is being remodeled into the Coshocton Collaborative. It will be a unique maker space, business incubator and co-working facility, while also providing office space for the port authority and other entities. It’s hoped the theater area in the future can be revived as well for plays, concerts and movies.
The Hale house was demolished for $8,450 and will be recouped from a $500,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development for demolition projects being worked on by the land bank and Coshocton County Port Authority. Tiffany Swigert, Executive Director of the Coshocton Port Authority, said they are looking to use the funding to teardown four more houses in the city and three in county located in Walhonding, Dresden and Frazeysburg.
Swigert hopes they can advertise for and receive bids for the demolitions at the land bank’s Sept. 12 meeting. She’s also putting together a list of secondary properties if the bids come under estimates and there is grant money available. Swigert said she has three structures on the wait list with one in the city, one in Walhonding and one on County Road 1A. She hopes all work is done by the end of the year.
Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with close to 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on Twitter at @llhayhurst.