A couple of doozies on the (auction) block.

A 10:00 a.m. sheriff's sale on Thursday, March 13, will include the following two commercial gems:


Elias Laib Building
624 Vincennes Street

To be sold at Sheriff’s Sale Thursday, 13 March 2008 at 10:00 AM in the Office of the Sheriff of Floyd County (first floor of the City-County Building, 311 Hauss Square, New Albany). Judgment number: 22C01-0308-MF-419.

Built 1889. Italianate. The Elias Laib Building. This structure was built in 1889 by the Honorable Franklin C. Johnson, a New Albany capitalist. Mr. Johnson sold this new building to Elias Laib in June 1889 for $1,450. The property would remain in the Laib family through June 1966. Mr. Laib had his grocery and residence next door at 622 Vincennes Street. By the time of the printing of the 1892 New Albany City Directory, Frank R. Hardy had established his hardware and tin shop at this busy corner in the Uptown area of New Albany. Mr. Hardy would continue his business here until around 1910.





Baptist Tabernacle
318 East Fourth Street

To be sold at Sheriff’s Sale Thursday, 13 March 2008 at 10:00 AM in the Office of the Sheriff of Floyd County (first floor of the City-County Building, 311 Hauss Square, New Albany). Judgment number: 22C01-0612-MF-801.

When their new edifice was completed in 1879, the merged First Baptist Church and the Bank Street Baptist Church changed their name to the Baptist Tabernacle Church. Building in the Neoclassical style, the Louisville, Kentucky, contractor Watkins & Co. used New Albany laborers and materials, and New Albany's John Crawford did the brickwork. The building was begun in July 1878, and wasn't occupied until January 4, 1880. The congregation did not rush construction. They built slowly and did not propose to have the work done any faster than they could pay for it.


Readers can contact Joyce Banet in the Floyd County Sheriff's office at (812)948-5408 for more information about purchasing property through sheriff's sales.

More complete building descriptions and histories, instructions for sheriff's sale bidding, and other historic property listings can be found at the Historic New Albany web site, whence the above photos and abbreviated histories were procured.