Meridian city officials are planning to ask the city council to condemn downtown event venue The Ruins as property owners look to demolish the historic E.F. Young Jr. Hotel next door.

The E.F. Young Jr. Hotel, which once hosted civil rights workers and was one of few places in Meridian where African-Americans could stay, has been shuttered and a block of 25th Avenue outside the hotel closed since September 2021 out of concern the decayed building might fall.

As the Young family looks to demolish the historic structure in the near future, concerns were raised about potential damage to The Ruins, which shares an adjoining wall.

In May, the Meridian City Council met with The Ruins owner James Copeland about his property, which had been forced to close since the block of 25th Avenue it shares with the hotel had been closed. In discussing the property, the council learned that The Ruins was not in compliance with city code, and the occupancy permit obtained prior to the venue’s 2019 opening appears to be invalid. 

Community Development Director Craig Hitt explained to the council in May The Ruins was not up to code, and it was not clear whether or not the structure could be brought up to code. Concerns over the structural integrity of the wall butting up against the Young Hotel had not been addressed, he said.

At the time, Hitt advised Copeland to contact a structural engineer to see if additional support was needed to prevent the wall from collapsing.

On Tuesday, Veldore Young Graham said the owners have done what they can to keep people out of the hotel while they move toward demolition. Despite their best efforts, she said the hotel has become a target for thieves, vandals and the homeless.

“As much as we board our hotel up, we can’t keep people out,” she said. “They stole all of our chairs; they’re stealing stuff out of the walls; they stole all the plumbing and copper out of it.”

Now, Graham said a demolition permit has been issued for the hotel, and the Young family is ready to move forward once the situation with The Ruins is resolved. The hotel owners, she said, were hoping the city could provide some guidance on where to go from here.

Copeland and the Young family could not agree if The Ruins had previously been condemned by the city, but code enforcement staff said the venue would not be able to open to the public in its current condition.

City Attorney Will Simmons said the city cannot be responsible for what may or may not happen to The Ruins when the Young Hotel is demolished. The city should have required architectural drawings with a structural engineer’s sign off prior to issuing The Ruins an occupancy permit, he said, but that does not negate the property owner’s responsibility to make sure their building is safe.

Regardless of what the city did or didn’t do, Simmons said it doesn’t change that the contractor is responsible for the quality of their work and the property owner is responsible for holding them accountable.

“The landowner has the ultimate responsibility that their land is up to code,” he said.

Without an inspection from a structural engineer, none of the parties Tuesday could definitively say if The Ruins would be able to stand on its own without the Young Hotel providing additional support. The structure, however, was not up to code, and Simmons said he would recommend the city move forward with condemning the property.

“If The Ruins is not structurally sound, the city has the right to condemn it,” he said. “If it falls down on its own, that’s not the city’s fault just because we gave it a blessing. That doesn’t mean anything. We have the right to go and look at it again and say apparently it doesn’t and condemn it. We can change our mind.”

Hitt said he would work to get everything in order for the council to set a condemnation hearing for The Ruins in its Jan. 17 meeting.