COOS BAY — Coos Bay city officials got their first glimpse of the Lockhart Building’s interior this month. It isn’t pretty and a structural engineer now must determine whether it should be saved or torn down.

The former home of the 1920s-era Noble Theater reeks of mold. Dozens of buckets collect water from its leaking roof. A roof truss on the third floor sags at the middle, dripping water, while several ground-level floors slant noticeably.

These problems aren’t new. It’s just city employees hadn’t had a chance to see them in person until now.

The city declared the building dangerous over the summer. An engineer’s report said the roof is failing, part of the second floor is sagging and the foundation had settled to the point where a false floor was added to provide level surfaces.

The building is owned by Coos Bay Central Avenue Property, bought by property manager Gary Mountain, a Californian who pooled money from investors in a development scheme. When the city declared the building dangerous, Mountain called on his investors to contribute $120,000 to make repairs. Instead of providing the funds, they demanded to know what happened to the $960,000 they originally invested.

The city brought the issue before a hearings official, who ordered the repair or demolition of the building. The decision gave Mountain until Dec. 1 to provide an abatement plan to the city.

City Manager Chuck Freeman said nothing has come across his desk, giving the city the right to enter the building.

City Engineer Carl Nolte said the city needs a structural engineer to inspect the building before it proceeds with either repairs or demolition.

Freeman got his first look at the downtown building Monday, walking through with Nolte. They started the tour on the second floor in a room Nolte guessed used to be a dance hall.

The room is littered with old paint cans, records, fans, a pair of shopping carts, a photo of the 1999-2000 Marshfield High School cheerleaders squad, broken chairs, old signs and a rolled up copy of blueprints to the Coos Bay Boardwalk.

“It’s like a yard sale,” Freeman said.

There are holes in the walls and ceiling. Water is pooling amidst crumbling plaster in several locations.

Nolte pointed his flashlight at a section of the ceiling where he said it appeared floor joists for the third floor had been cut away to make room for plumbing.

Ducking down through a short doorway, the city officials stepped into the former theater.

“It’s been pretty well gutted,” Nolte said.

The seating at the north end of the room is gone, with a ring of exposed studs an imprint of their removal.

The stage at the south end appears to have been torn out to make room for expansion of the store below, which last housed the building’s final tenant, Hair Co. Etc. Next to the expansion is what Nolte guesses was a heating and cooling system. He noted that whoever made the addition must have cut away part of a header, which has resulted in part of the floor settling.

The men proceeded up to the third floor, which houses six old apartments. One room contained large rolls of paper taped to the wall with lines of scripture, while another room had an antique box spring.

It’s most noticeable failing was the sagging roof truss, below which were several buckets of water, overflowing with rain water that seeped through the roof. The floor was black with mold.

“The roof truss appears to have failed because of moisture,” Nolte said. “But that is for a structural engineer to say.”

Before calling it a day, Nolte and Freeman returned to the ground floor, walking through the series of storefronts that sit vacant. Nolte noted that a small step from one room to the next was the result of a previous owner laying down cement to make the floor level.

Freeman pointed to the ceiling of one office space where a gap was forming.

“The caulking is stretched away,” he said.

Farther down a passageway, the linoleum was wrinkled and bubbled from water damage. At the end of the hallway, a staircase leads below ground level. Nolte pointed his flashlight through a gap between the floor and the foundation, where several piers were visible. He noted that a couple of them had cement poured on top. He guessed that the tops had started to rot, so they were cut off and the cement added in an attempt to repair the floor support.

City officials estimate repairs would be much more expensive than Mountain’s suggestion — if repairs are feasible at all.

“There are a lot of unknowns that we will have to have the structural engineer address,” Nolte said.