Happy New Year! Mystery Solved!

Let's start the new year off right by solving one of GroveAtopia's great mysteries of 2009 - the Mystery boxes.

I'm sure you remember back in March, when we discussed the strange case of the mystery boxes that had been inexplicably been placed behind the bars on the porch of the historic First National Bank building on the corner of 6th and Main Street downtown. In case you don't recall, here is a picture to remind you.

Now do you remember? Those two boxes sat there in that exact position for nearly 2 years. Later a few more boxes were added, then some garbage. Clearly the situation was deteriorating. Who was putting them there? Why? All we knew was that they were coming from inside the building because those bars are never, ever, ever open. Why that is the case is yet another mystery, but let's not get carried away here. Let's stay focused on those boxes.

So you can imagine my surprise when a few weeks ago I was driving by the building and gasp! The boxes and their accompanying garbage were gone. For the first time in at least two years, that entryway was clean. Suddenly. So now the mystery was not why the boxes were there, but why the boxes were gone. Face it, everything about those boxes a mystery.

So now for the mystery solved part. A week or so later a sign appeared on the building. It's for sale. So of course the porch had to be cleaned up. Funny how it did not need to be cleaned up for us, but now that guests might be coming, well, time to clean.

It turns out that I am not the only one who noticed those boxes and that they were suddenly gone. The frame shop owner, whose building is right across the alley from the bank building, knows the lawyer who owns the building. He says he kept bugging him to remove the boxes, but somehow the owner never got around to it.

Then, later a friend at a birthday party brought up the boxes. He too noticed they were gone and had wondered why they were there in the first place. He also thinks the building would make a great toy and hobby shop, but then he is in to toys and hobbies.

So if you want to buy a building that was built in 1911, is the downtown historic district, and does not, I repeat, does not have boxes in the front entry way, then here is your chance.

And if you do buy the building, please promise you will never, ever put boxes in that entry way again.