Some who grew up in town still remember Delmege “Ching” Williams, who operated the grocery store at 113 Main St. for 47 years.

Others remember Viv and Skip’s diner next door.

Next to that building is one that started its life as a bank, but is more remembered as the office of Dr. H.F. Kiesling, who practiced medicine there for 50 years and was famous for his treatment of a sore throat.

“He had a swab he would put so far down your throat, he would clean out the inside of your toes,” said Kristi Anderson-Richardson.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter Three buildings in Lehigh, including the old grocery store at right, have been fenced off for safety reasons, after debris fell from them during a recent storm. The buildings remain for sale through Kesterson Realty. The buildings are over 100 years old, and the farther buildings throughout their history have held a furniture store, a doctor's office, a bank, and a "Nifty 50s" diner.

Those buildings are now vacant, and falling into disrepair. And quite a discussion was sparked on Facebook recently after the town of Lehigh put up an orange fence around them.

The fence is just there to keep people safe, said Mayor Phil Richardson.

“The town itself, we as the council put a fence around them because there was building material falling off them,” Richardson said. “Falling out in the street. We put a fence around them just for the safety of the people.”

The city isn’t doing anything with those properties, he said, and does not own the buildings.

The buildings are for sale, though — and recently word got around that an out of town investor was looking to purchase them.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter Betty Bockoven, one of the current owners of the former Lehigh grocery store, holds an old photo of Delmege "Ching" Williams coming out the door of his store in 1974. Williams owned the shop for 47 years.

That is true, but the deal has now fallen through, said Jeremiah Condon of Kesterson Realty, who is the listing agent for the property.

“I do have other investors who will be looking later this week,” Condon said.

The buildings are owned by Jim and Betty Bockoven, of Fort Dodge, who also own the now closed gas station in Lehigh, and the Lehigh Cafe, which is still open.

While they were disappointed the sale didn’t go through, Betty Bockoven said people shouldn’t get too excited when they hear about potential sales.

“In real estate you don’t say anything is definite until you sign that deed and record it,” she said.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter Mayor Phil Richardson looks in the locked door of an old building owned by the town of Lehigh which is in need of repair. The city is hoping to find a buyer for this property, while three privately owned buildings across the street are also for sale.

Anderson-Richardson is Mayor Richardson’s wife. She remembers the grocery store quite well; her parents Oliver and Lillian Anderson bought the building from Williams on June 3, 1974.

It’s an old building–built sometime after the fire of 1901. Online records with the Webster County Assessor say it was built in 1910.

The building’s design showed its history, she said.

“In the store when my parents bought it was an old–it was what refrigeration was when the building was built,” she said. “It was wooden and the walls were filled with sawdust, and the walls were really thick.

“There was a door in the basement that went out to the river. They would go out to the river, get ice blocks, haul them in, and put them in there. That’s how they kept their stuff cold.”

-Submitted photo Lillian Anderson, left, visits with Henry Martin at the Lehigh grocery store in this old photograph provided by Anderson's daughter Kristi Anderson Richardson. Her parents purchased the store on June 3, 1974.

Her parents had a lot of cleaning to do when they took over the building, Anderson-Richardson said. After the big floods of 1954, Williams cleaned most of the basement of the silt that came in, but didn’t make it to the very farthest rooms under the sidewalk.

“Because that basement is massive, and frankly kind of creepy,” Anderson-Richardson said.

They made another discovery while cleaning silt.

“He had a lot of people who owed him money when he died,” she said. “People used to charge their groceries. So back in that room were all these receipts from people who owed him all this money.”

The space above the grocery store was once used by Masons to gather, she added.

-Submitted photo This photo of downtown Lehigh of yesteryear, provided by Karen Johnson Anderson, shows Anderson Grocery at right next to Viv and Skip's diner. Kristi Anderson-Richardson, whose parents owned the grocery store, said the picture is likely from the 1980s.

After her parents, the grocery store went through several owners before it was converted into apartments. Later the building fell into disuse.

Today, there’s great interest in preserving the buildings, but a buyer must be found. There’s nothing the city itself can do to help.

In fact the city owns a building of its own across the street–just north of the Security Savings Bank, at 18 Main St.

This has also fallen into disrepair.

“I don’t know what the next step will be,” Richardson said.

The city did do some work, he said, and hopes to do more, but there’s only so much money.

“We’d sure like to sell it or give it away to someone who would do something with it,” Richardson said. “The city put a roof on it, and all the asbestos has been removed, but it’s in extremely poor shape. It needs a lot of work.

“I think all small towns are in this situation.”

Richardson said he has done some research, and are grants available to help revitalize old buildings, but a developer must have a plan for the building first.

The city’s building was once a drug store, said Roger Smith, who has lived in Lehigh all his life.

“I was born here,” Smith said.

He remembered the grocery store, and the furniture store next door to it, which later became Viv and Skip’s.

That third building, which was a bank and then a doctor’s office, also spent time as a sandwich shop and an antique store, Anderson-Richardson said.

A fourth building which has since been torn down was Timmons hardware store, which went along with the Timmons Furniture store one building away.

Times have changed since then.

“In 1974 when my parents bought that grocery store, there were 900 people in town,” Anderson-Richardson said. “There were four churches and five taverns, and two or three other grocery stores. There was one up the hill, one down the street, and one across the river. The tile factory was open; it used to employ around 250 people.

“It was a hoppin’ town.”

Today, the population of Lehigh is closer to 425.

As for the three old buildings, Jim Bockoven is hopeful he’ll find a buyer.

“We do have a couple more looking at it,” he said. “It’s like new inside.

“We want to save these buildings to help the town,” he added. “Lehigh is a good little town.

“You’re not a stranger when you come to Lehigh.”

The Bockovens are also selling the former gas station, and the current cafe, through Kesterson Realty.

And the Facebook page about Lehigh’s main street has helped drum up interest, Condon said.

“I’ve had phone calls left and right about it,” he said.