Color of building puts Denison gym and city at odds

Denison, Texas (KXII) - After years of sun exposure, owners of the Old Firehouse Gym, Kevin and Devon Arrington, said it was time for a fresh coat of paint.

“Since we are the Old Firehouse Gym, we went with a fire engine red color, the red and black, just like an old firehouse, that’s our identity,” said Kevin Arrington.

Now, they’re running into problems.

They said they filled out all the paperwork and chose a shade of red already approved as historic by the city.

It turns out the shade is no longer made.

Instead, they color-matched it, but it ended up being brighter.

They thought it would fade into the correct color, and all would be well.

But the city of Denison didn’t see it that way.

“It was not the color they submitted on their application and also not included in the color palette of the National Trust of Historic Preservation,” said Aaron Werner.

The city asked them to stop painting.

“Here we are talking about a shade of red ... a shade of red,” Kevin Arrington.

The owners said all of the money for the project came out of their own pockets too.

“We put all our life savings into it, and he’s a first responder, so we’re not millionaires,” Devon Arrington. “We’re just two business owners.”

Denison said they have a reason for the rules.

“When you’re dealing with a downtown that’s over 150 years old, well 150 years old next year, it takes a lot of care to make sure we have that downtown, these buildings, these properties for another 100 plus years,” said Werner.

But the owners said they’re just asking for one thing.

“Just work with us, and we’ll work with you.”

Next week the Arrington’s will go to the Historic Preservation Board at City Hall to make their case to keep the color.

The city said they plan to recommend denying their request to the board.

The Old Firehouse Gym also created a petition.