DANVILLE — An insurance company request has halted efforts for the time being to restore the downtown burned-out building that had housed Danville Bookworld and Briars and Brambles.

Downtown building owner Tenley Lippie said Safeco Insurance Co., which insures the adjacent Dale Building, wants to perform a second investigation into her building at 105-109 N. Vermilion St. that was damaged by a fire March 26.

“If we touch this building, (it will be considered) spoilage of evidence,” Lippie said. “They have tied our hands.

“We were ready to go to work,” she said of bracing the walls and starting restoration efforts. “I’ve got the funding put together to go this far.”

The Fort Wayne, Ind., resident said she may have to hold the insurance company accountable for delaying work on the building.

She’s been working with structural engineer Bob McClintock of Paris and Midwest Restoration in evaluating the building. He’s determined the building can safely be demolished, but he and Lippie are both pro-restoration. There can be a bracing system for the walls to work in the building safely, Lippie said.

In the meantime, however, Lippie also has a contract with Thomas Excavating for demolition “if it comes to that.”

She said the first choice is to brace the back and front walls, clean the garbage out of the building and step back and re-evaluate if they can continue with restoration or if it is out of reach financially. Lippie said if her tenants help reimburse her for the garbage, she might have enough money for windows.

Next would come the windows and roof. Midwest Restoration can fix the terra cotta front.

Lippie said she’d try to re-use as many Frank Lloyd Wright-designed tiles as she could and reproduce them as needed.

“On the inside, it looked to me the first-floor (tin) ceiling may be salvageable,” she said.

All electric, heating and cooling work needs to be re-done, and then side walls and flooring addressed, she said.

If it’s determined restoration is financially out of reach, “the building will come down at that point,” she said.

She estimates it will cost $1.2 to $1.4 million to restore the building.

Public misconceptions she’d like cleared up are: “it’s not raining money on me, and I’ve not hit the lottery. I’m not a fat landlord sitting at a desk collecting money.”

Also, the basement was not full of water as some have said. There was maybe an inch of water in it, she said.

Lippie knows this slow process in gathering experts and information “has got to be so frustrating” to the downtown public.

“To them it looks like nothing has happened,” she said.

But Lippie reassures residents that she’s working on this every day. She said if she would’ve done what’s best for her family it would’ve been demolished two months ago. But she’s trying to look out for the downtown.

“I will be spending my money in anything that I do in this building,” she said.

Lippie is the fifth generation in her family to own the building that was purchased by her great-great-grandfather William H. Webster in 1907.

She added the city has been helpful with getting a structural engineering report completed, involving state historic people and funding.

“And the city has been patient with it all,” she said.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. of Northbrook performed a structural engineering study of the building.

Funding for the approximately $6,000 assessment came from a $2,000 emergency grant from the National Trust for Historical Preservation, $2,000 in matching funding from Landmarks Illinois and up to $2,000 from the city coming from community development dollars in the capital budget.

The report states the fire damage to the building was generally limited to the roof and east portions of the second floor and east masonry wall. The masonry walls are generally intact throughout the majority of the building.

“With proper repairs, the majority of the first- and second-floor framing and the west elevation can be salvaged,” the report said.

“From the historical perspective, it’s a salvageable building,” Lippie has said.

Mayor Scott Eisenhauer said he knew that more engineering studies were being completed on the side and basement walls with the two adjoining buildings to see how they’d withstand a demolition.

“To my knowledge, the engineering reports are not finished for both buildings,” he said.

City officials have requested a meeting with Lippie and McClintock to discuss their plans to salvage the property “so we can get a truer picture of what the exact plans are, and the financial position that all parties would have to see it to its conclusion.”

“If it can be done successfully, I think it’s a great opportunity,” Eisenhauer said.

But he’s concerned about the project being started and Lippie walking away from the unfinished building.

“There would have to be the plans to complete the project and the financial means,” he said.

City building codes would have to be met for short-term, then long-term objectives.

“We’ve tried to work with the property owner, as well as community interest in seeing the building salvaged and restored,” Eisenhauer said of the slow process.

“We’ve tried not to rush to demolition on this project, but make sure what is done is for the betterment of the downtown area.”

Lippie said she likely cannot afford to take the building to full restoration on her own. She welcomes additional financial help.

“I may have to hand it off to someone else or get help,” she said. “On my own, I don’t see it happening.”

Eisenhauer said the project wouldn’t qualify for Community Development Block Grant funding, but there are revolving loan fund and other programs available.

“Salvaging history is always important, but the city’s ability to participate in that is extremely limited,” he said.