ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- The historic Fornells building in downtown St. Augustine was demolished Thursday night, hours after the two-story building partially collapsed.
As crews tore down the more than 200-year-old structure on 62 Hypolita Street, some of the spectators felt their memories get crushed.
"It's really awful," said Diana Hamann who lived in the home in the 1960s. "It's very sad and my brother and I are very broken up about it because for us it's very personal, this is our childhood home."
Hamann remembers witnessing history in that home during the civil rights movement.
"We saw the Martin Luther King silent March with the candles comes towards us across this parking lot," said Hamann.
The structure is one of 31 of the oldest buildings in St. Augustine. Owner Len Weeks says it was built during the colonial period using coquina stone and a foundation of oyster shells.
"It's a terrible loss to us and I was trying while I had the opportunity with all the concrete around the building to put a collar around the foundation and when we did one of the sides just sheared off," said Weeks.
The site soon became the center of attention for neighboring business owners and customers.
"When I opened up [the store] around 11 a.m. it was just a big crack along the back wall and then within a couple hours you saw it literally collapse into the building," said Kristen Billyer who owns '29 Olives' inside the building next to Fornells.
The collapse opened up a massive hole in the rear of the building, which city officials said was built in 1807, and left the structure sagging in a lopsided manner.
No one was in the building when walls collapsed on the first floor, but owners of 'Bath Junkie,' a fragrance store, have operated their shop inside the building for 12 years.
"We're going to go in there personally pick through anything that we can salvage. There's a lot of like I said personal affects, inventory in there that we're hoping to recover," said Robert Geiger, who co-owns the store with his wife.
Weeks says he hopes to rebuild with as much of the old materials he can salvage.
City Manager John Regan says the building could not be saved. Regan says it was not stable and posed a threat to people and other surrounding buildings.
The demolition lasted about an hour and a half.
