Stone by stone, the facade of the A.J. Tucker building in downtown Bend is slowly disappearing.

The century-old lava-rock building at the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Harriman Street is being dismantled by a crew of workers using jackhammers, drills, masonry hammers and other tools to make way for an expansion of the Deschutes County Courthouse.

“They have to be real careful, taking away the mortar from the stones piece by piece,” said Wayne Powderly, project manager with Cumming Management Group, which represents the county during the development of the courthouse project.

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“It is painstaking work. It’s one piece at a time to get it on the ground.”

Work on the building removal began last week and is expected to continue through Thursday.

The A.J. Tucker building was finished in 1919 and originally served as a blacksmith shop. During its lifetime, the building was used for different court functions and for a time was a pioneer museum.

Once the facade is removed, the rest of the building will be demolished to make way for an expansion of the adjacent courthouse.

The work this week includes numbering each stone so the facade can be one day reassembled in a new location. The stones will be kept in a secure outdoor location owned by Deschutes County.

“When it gets rebuilt somewhere else, we will know where every stone goes,” said Powderly.

The county can store the rocks for eight years, after which time they can be discarded. The county has not determined where the facade could be placed, but if it is rebuilt, the building will be a familiar site.

“When it gets put back together it will look exactly the same,” said Powderly.