CITY OF NEWBURGH – When the contractor hired by Aaron Lown began clearing the crumpled structure and getting rid of the old tires and mattresses outside, pedestrians passing 143 Washington St. and its adjacent lot stopped to share memories of when people lived in what had become a long-vacant property.

“There’s one guy who was like, ‘We would go into that building on a Thursday partying, and we wouldn’t come out till Sunday,’” Lown said.

Others have different memories: the rundown three-story shell haunting the southwest corner of Federal and Washington streets in the City of Newburgh; and, next to it, the collapsing building.

A long-held wish is being fulfilled. Lown and his wife, Elizabeth Grubaugh, have purchased the property from the Newburgh Community Land Bank, have removed the crumbling garage and its contents and started stabilizing the house.

The project represents the end of a blighted property that stood out in a section largely resurrected by Habitat for Humanity, whose venerated East Parmenter Street development sits outside Lown’s back windows.

For he and Grubaugh, whose renovation of a Tuxedo property was chronicled in a 2006 New York Times article, the project represents a logical next step after Lown opened a product-design business in Atlas Industries’ building, which is a short walk from Washington Street.

“We always had our eye on Newburgh,” Lown said. “Architecturally, there’s so many interesting things here.”

On a recent Wednesday, a crew from Mike Conners’ Beacon-based restoration company installed beams on the roofless top floor. Getting the roof installed and the building stabilized and fortified against weather is the most immediate priority.

Although a pile of tires sat along the Federal Street side of the property, most of what had filled the lot next to the house is gone, a cleanup process Lown and Grubaugh documented in pictures at an Instagram account created for the project.

“It's in pretty rough shape, and it’s going to be a big project, but we were interested in it,” he said.

Cathy Collins, executive director for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh, is one champion of the project.

Federal Street leads into East Parmenter Street, where Habitat built single-family homes in place of a barren strip of vacant properties favored by drug dealers and prostitutes.

“Every year we would go: Is this next snowstorm going to be the one that brings down the whole building?” she said of the falling-down structure that has been removed.

Lown and Grubaugh are not the only new additions to Washington Street. Toward the west end of the block, a bloc of four rowhouses has been bought and is undergoing renovation.

Conners also decided on Newburgh. He recently bought a commercial property on Hasbrouck Street. It will become the new headquarters for his restoration company.

“I think, architecturally, it’s an incredible place,” Conners said.

-lsparks@th-record.com