A historic building on Main Street is showing its age.

On Friday morning, a section of the decorative brick façade of 224 E. Main Street fell onto the sidewalk. More pieces appear to be on the verge of falling. The building was constructed in 1923. Owned by Megan Dodson until recently, it was purchased by The Vanilla Bean Baking Company on Jan. 16.

Kayla Woodard and Sally Robertson own the baking company, which specializes in cakes, cupcakes, cookies and many more home-baked goods.

Robertson says she knew the cookie store needed attention, but didn’t expect it to crumble.

“When we had the building inspected, we were told the front façade needed work and it was on our to-do list,” she said. “We didn’t know that two weeks after purchasing it that bricks would come loose and fall. If we had known the situation was that severe, we would have had it worked on immediately in order to prevent this.”

McMinnville Community Development Department director Nolan Ming inspected the damaged building and contacted the owners.

“Mr. Ming was very nice when he called,” said Robertson. “He told me they’d leave it like it is until we can get it fixed. I’ve been trying to find a mason to go up there and shore it up in order to prevent more bricks from falling. We want people to know we are working to get this fixed as soon as possible. Hopefully, we can find someone who’ll do it this weekend. If not, at least pretty quickly.”

The Vanilla Bean Baking Company has been a home-based bakery on Ben Lomond Street. Plans are to relocate from the residence to Main Street.