It’s been emptied of people for nearly three months. Now it’s time to start clearing out the contents of St. Joseph County’s Portage Manor.
County Commissioner Derek Dieter says there’s a lot of items left from the building’s 116-year history. It started as a sanitarium for the mentally ill, and ended as a home for people with low income and disabilities.
Commissioners this week hired Kaser Auction Service to clear the property of anything people might buy. The items include 20 jail cells, an old cooler, furniture, a large safe, stained glass windows, books, comic books, historical photos, pictures and more, Dieter says.
“It’s so many things that people would like to buy,” Dieter said. “There’s church pews, there’s like a stand-up confessional, just a lot of unique things. I’m not a big auction person per se but there’s just so much stuff that’s been compiled over the years that’s in there.”
The county would like Kaser to have it all categorized and ready to sell by the end of the year, but there’s no hard deadline, Dieter says.
Kaser will conduct a first round of auctions online at a date to be determined. What doesn’t sell there will later be auctioned in person.
