Editorial: Four Corners, downtown progress

There are obstacles to traffic at the corner of Madison Avenue and Huron Street in downtown Toledo. It’s an inconvenience that is good news.

Demolition work inside the Spitzer and Nicholas buildings at the Four Corners intersection has extended safety barriers into the street. It’s a sign of progress in the city’s quest to restore Toledo’s first “skyscraper” buildings into a mixed-use, retail, and residential development.

The asbestos and other hazardous materials, standard to construction in the late 1800s when the buildings went up, has been removed. Now internal walls that divided the buildings into hundreds of offices are being removed to make spacious apartments from the restored landmarks.

The Nicholas and Spitzer buildings have been the recipients of two Ohio Historic Preservatio