Evening star., 1948-01-05
Collapse
Continued From First Page)

lapse, In Wnlcn IOur were klleQ
and IL were injured, has no power
of subpoena. He said the matter
would be turned over to the corpo-
ration counsel's Office to determine
what steps can be taken to assure
the witness's appearance before the
board ..
Owner Denies Conversation.
Meanwhile, Mr.. Papanicolas de-
MED having any such conversation
with the janitor. He told reporters
he had seen Mr. Brown only yester-
day and added that they had dis
cussed only when Mr.. Brown might
60 back to work.
I Mr.. Papanicolas, through his
brother, George, who also is his at
torney, denied that any crack had
appeared in the central pier of the
City Finance Co. offices on the first
floor Of the Empire Building on
December Is.
Ben Fields, branch manager of
City Finance, was the one who had
testified earlier that a long, wide,
diagonal crack appeared in the pier
IS hours before the collapse and that
he pointed out the crack to the
owner.
Mr.. Papanicolas said he had never
discussed such crack with MI.
Fields. He said an employe Of City
Finance had reported water leaking
through the wall there, but, on ex-
amining 1t, he had seen no crack.
Mr.. Papanicolas told reporters he
hired q maintenance man, identified
as w. r. Marshall, to repaper the
damp spot he did find, but that the
building collapsed before the work
could be done.
Regarding the missing building
records, Mr.. Beall said master
sheet Of building permits issued
since the Ninth street and New York
avenue NV. structure was built in
1893 indicates 10 permits for reno
vations on the building have been
issued. Only IS could be located
in flles and vaults of the District
Building Inspectors ONCE.
Mr.. Fields described the crack In
the wall as starting about one foot
below the first-floor ceiling. 1t took
q diagonal course downward and
was about 18 to "a inches long
through three sides of the wall, he
said.
Water seeped out Of the crack on
the 18th, Mr.. Fields said. The fol-
lowing day the crack had heightened
considerably and had widened as
as much as inches at some points,
Mr.. Fields testified.
Collapse Came December 16.
When the City Finance Co. closed
on the evening of December 16, Mr..
Fields declared, nothing had been
done to repair or investigate the
crack. At 1880 pm, the second
floor gave way without warning,
catapulting the seven floors above
into a mass of rubble and twisted
beams.
Mr.. Fields, shown a photograph
OF the first floor taken shortly before
the collapse, indicated the extent
of the crack.
Earlier, the board Of inquiry pro-
duced a chart it had made Of the
first, floor, particularly illustrating
the original extent Of the bearing
wall and showing subsequent cuts
made into it by successive occupants.
The chart shows that the wall
originally extended east and west
through what now Is the center Of
the City Finance Co. offices. 1t was
about 80 feet long. 1t has been
testified that three separate sec
tions Of this wall have been removed
1.-TWO Of them in 1908 and another
in about 1882.
Only Central Part Left.
At the time Of the collapse, only
. central portion of the wall re-
manned, forming a tier or partition
less than half the length of the
original bearing-wall.
AS the hearing drew to a close,
Andrew Panagopoulos, who operated
a.restaurant on the first floor of the
building from 1924 to 1912, testified
that he had a section of the pier
removed in 1884 to provide greater
space in his establishment. He said
the work was done, with a District |
building permit, by Moss Lee, a con-
struction man.
George Papanicolas asked the
board to permit his brother to ap-
pear as the last witness when the
hearings are resumed at q later
date. Stewart Beall, board chair
man, consented to permit the owner
to take the stand at the same time
that witnesses appear to tell of ex-
tensive remodeling work done In
1s45 and 1916 when the front of
the building had its face lifted for
Of new stores.
Brig. Gen. John w. Oehmann.
who was Building Inspector from
1924 until 1914, could throw no light
on the mystery Of the building sex
eept through ofncial records"
The board Is made up Of Mr.. Beall
Robert H. Davis, District Building
Inspector; Assistant Corporation h
Counsel Chester H. Gray; w. B.