Less than a year after fire destroyed part of downtown Lowville, things are looking up.

One of the buildings lucky to have survived the blaze was sold at auction Monday.

"It's been an emotional roller coaster and hopefully now that roller coaster ride will be over and then we can move forward," said Lowville mayor and former building co-owner Donna Smith.

Now, the community is one step closer to doing just that.

While fire reduced the historic Times Block building to rubble, the adjacent building, which housed the Wildroot Bookstore and three apartments, survived.

On Monday, the building's four owners sold the property and its contents at auction.

"With all of us working together, this is the best result that we came up with was actually reselling the building to somebody who might be more interested in taking care of it and redoing it," Smith said.

The building sold for $30,000 to Donald Murphy, an Old Forge restaurant owner and masonry contractor who did foundation work on the building after the fire. 

Murphy wasn't able to attend the auction, but sent a friend to bid in his place. 

"I think something could be here and up and running within a year's time for sure," that friend, Raymond Ricard, said.

While community are anxious to see what the future holds for this historic building, many say the loss of the Wildroot Bookstore leaves a very big void to fill.

"I'm extremely sad that we don't have access to books, either in Watertown with Borders closing or this gem of a bookstore," Dawn Swetedoski said.

Whatever the future holds, the former owners say grant money may be available to upgrade the building and restore downtown Lowville to the way it once was.