MECHANIC FALLS – Jesse Cook and Judy Marston can’t believe what’s become of a downtown building that was once the social center of town and the beginning of their relationship.

The 100-year-old building known as JJ’s Restaurant on Elm Street has sat vacant for about three years. The possibility that the local landmark may be torn down makes Cook angry.

“I hate to see the building go, and the town promised me that they wouldn’t tear it down,” said Cook. “It’s just criminal what’s happened to that building. It’s just awful.”

The original JJ’s Restaurant sign hangs on the outside of Cook’s and Marston’s garage. It reminds them of the building’s heyday and their younger years when life was full of promise.

Scrapbooks and photo albums serve as additional souvenirs of when Cook and Marston first rehabilitated the building in 1982. Together, they turned the looming hull into the home of the double-yolker, where prominent figures such as Sen. George Mitchell held breakfast meetings.

Several owners and years later, the town now owns the building. For the price of $1, Mechanic Falls purchased the building from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which previously acquired the building through a foreclosure.

The town advertised this summer for proposals to rehabilitate the building with hopes of a multi-use commercial operation, another contributor to the town’s tax rolls.

Town officials had high hopes when the phone started ringing with calls from about a dozen interested developers, Town Manager Dana Lee said.

However, when proposals came due in early September, only two people had any serious interest in taking over the building. One of those proposals included tearing the building down.

That proposal involved putting in a new, smaller building with a single second-story apartment. The second proposal included turning the first floor of the original building into three commercial suites with four rental units upstairs, said Lee.

“No one foresaw that demolition would be acceptable,” said Lee. “But seeing the one plan with the building gone and some landscaping, it didn’t look inappropriate. The original thought was that we didn’t want to have an empty space.”

The town’s Development Commission will meet Oct. 25 to review any new proposals, with the first two still on the table, said Lee. Details of proposals and developers remain confidential until the bidding process is complete.

“The first ad didn’t preclude demolition,” said Lee. “But it may have been misleading and skewed toward redevelopment. The building needs a fair amount of work, but it still has a lot of potential. I’m still of the opinion that we’re still thinking in terms of rehab.”

But even Marston, who entertained thoughts of taking over the building again and giving it another try, decided that the work was too daunting.

“I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to tackle again,” said Cook. “When I saw the condition it was in and what had happened to it over the years, it was just too much.”

By the time the town acquired the building, neglect and vandalism had left only filth and debris. The last owners literally walked out and left the dishes on the tables and sinks, said Code Enforcement Officer John Hawley during a previous interview.

“You don’t go and just destroy property like that unless you’re heathens,” said Cook, who got his restaurant start running a pizza joint in Cape Cod.

Cook, now 77, and Marston, 58, reminisced over the first time they remodeled the building. They kept the original drugstore shelves that lined one wall and displayed arts and crafts for sale by local residents.

They remembered the work that went into turning the second floor into four rental apartments. The couple sold the building in 1989, but they’ve kept some restaurant memorabilia and their dedication to each other.