Monday, December 17, 2012

On the Vintage Fire Museum and whether it will remain in New Albany.

If you're interested in helping support the concept of a Vintage Fire Museum located in New Albany, whether at its current site amid the former Coyle auto sales property, or somewhere else hereabouts, now's the time to do some earnest brainstorming. We're told a crossroads lies just ahead.

The Green Mouse has learned that as negotiations between museum backers and the departed Coyle family founder, the city of Jeffersonville has offered a "free" building to house the historic fire equipment.

It would be a shame to waste the work already done. A cadre of committed individuals has put in long hours and hard work toward making a go of the museum here in New Albany. Seeing as the fire museum would be a niche destination for visitors, it conceivably might be located just about anywhere in town, leaving the Coyle property to be adaptively reused in an arguably more appropriate fashion.

My suggestion echoes that of the former UEA director Mike Ladd: Gut the main multi-story portion of the Sprigler-owned "Commercial Building" opposite the Carnegie on Bank Street and place the museum there. It'd be less expensive to do that than work necessary to restore the Coyle property, wouldn't it? It would give the Sprigler family an anchor tenant, and New Albany would be able to offer two museums (and a brewery, and two restaurants) on one block.

Any ideas?

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