New Albany is a state of mind … but whose? Since 2004, we’ve been observing the contemporary scene in this slowly awakening old river town. If it’s true that a pre-digital stopped clock is right twice a day, when will New Albany learn to tell time?
Showing posts with label renovation and restoration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label renovation and restoration. Show all posts
Yes, and I do mean greatest. Nine dreary and ever-decaying years later, at long last the Preston Arts facade is GONE.
I'm giddy.
From late last year, when Diana Hylton said all that needed to be said: "There’s going to be signage for an actual business that’s going to be there, it’s not just going to be something that was once there that hasn’t been. It’s going to be current and fresh and exciting. We’re just excited — that’s all I can say."
Hearty congratulations to the new occupants for their stellar restoration work. And now, all together, let's turn to the band Sparks for inspiration.
Giddy giddy giddy Our entire city Each and every person the Epitome of giddiness We're giddy giddy giddy Our entire city Everyone displaying an Immense amount of giddiness
We begin with the newspaper's account on Friday (June 12), then turn to our legal bagel Shane for a new/old word, before concluding with three vital links.
NEW ALBANY — It helped launch the career of a Major League Baseball Hall of Fame player, provided a gymnasium for local basketball teams at a time when such space was scarce, and served as the base for a group of men who valued community spirit.
A century ago today, the Calumet Club moved into its new headquarters at 1614 E. Spring St. Considered a prestigious organization that reached a membership of about 800 at its peak, men paid about $1.50 a month to be part of the social and athletic club.
The continued use of the building and the living history behind its century of existence are testaments to a family's vision.
Richard Bliss died in 2012, but he got to fulfill his dream of owning the Calumet Club and restoring it into a charming centerpiece of the East Spring Street and Vincennes Street corridor.
“The main reason was to save a beautiful building because of its history and to give back to the community,” Mark Bliss said of his parents’ intentions for buying and restoring the Calumet Club.
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Back in 2016, the Calumet Club prompted a question of our resident municipal bond fetishist wordsmith.
Welcome to another installment of SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS, a regular Wednesday feature at NA Confidential.
... Many readers already know about the Calumet Club in New Albany. There are also Calumet rivers, regions and towns. But what is a calumet when used as a noun?
It's a Native American pipe.
Tobacco, indigenous to North America, followed Indian trade routes throughout the continent long before Columbus arrived, and pipe smoking took on a ritual and religious importance in many tribes. Naturally, the crafting of pipes became equally important.
The most famous Native American pipes are the long calumets or "peace pipes" of the Sioux and other Plains Indian tribes, which were made by attaching a wooden stem to a bowl carved from catlinite or "pipestone." (Pipestone is native to Minnesota, but due to intertribal trade was available throughout Native North America.) Other native pipe-making traditions included the smaller one-piece stone and ceramic pipes of the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, wood and antler pipes of the Southwest Indians, and the post-Columbian tomahawk pipes with a metal pipe bowl and hatchet on opposite ends of the stem.
Calumet Club Dates in History, courtesy of the Calumet Club, illustrate that it was a thriving social institution on post-WWI New Albany. Finally, from the library's Stuart Barth Wrege Indiana History Room comes this memento of times long gone.
As the singer pithily observed, we have all been here before.
Win, lose or draw -- and there was plenty of each from 2009 through 2019 -- NABC's Bank Street Brewhouse was my baby, and now that one of my jobs is to report on such matters as its revitalization into Monnik in Hoosierland, I was absolutely determined to get the scoop.
Monnik Beer Co. opened in Germantown in 2015 and enjoys a reputation as one of Louisville’s finest breweries. Meanwhile the New Albanian Brewing Company’s Bank Street Brewhouse production brewery in downtown New Albany was shuttered in May, 2019 after ten years of making beer and memories.
Now it’s 2020, and construction continues as Monnik works toward a location in Indiana at the former Bank Street Brewery building (415 Bank Street, New Albany).
The original NABC Pizzeria & Public House (founded in 1987) continues to bake pizzas and brew beer at 3312 Plaza Drive on New Albany’s north side ...
Following are photos I took on December 15, only two of which were needed in the article. Like me, you might be mourning the disappearance of BSB's unique concrete bar top, which evidently has given way to the imperative of kitchen expansion.
But this is small beer. The most important part of this story is the fact it's happening -- along with the February advent of Recbar 812 a block away, The Exchange's "Tavern Hall" expansion into the adjacent former Feast BBQ space, Board and You's future location on Pearl, and whatever else I'm missing.
"There’s going to be signage for an actual business that’s going to be there, it’s not just going to be something that was once there that hasn’t been. It’s going to be current and fresh and exciting. We’re just excited — that’s all I can say."
-- Diana Hylton
Boy, does she nail this sentiment. Sorry, but that Preston storefront has been a notable eyesore for the past eight years, ever since the business moved.
Great story here, with Him Gentleman's Boutique and Mane Alley Color & Extension Bar purchasing and revamping a moribund building. Downtowners have known about this for a while, and it is good news indeed. Construction at RecBar across the street is underway, meaning that quite soon TWO redundant structures will have been put back to use.
Gary, is it time yet for an update on the River City Winery?
NEW ALBANY — For eight years, the former Preston Arts Center building in downtown New Albany has stood vacant. But with the growth of two local businesses, the space will be given new life.
The owners of Him Gentleman's Boutique and Mane Alley Color & Extension Bar in New Albany have bought the empty building at 315 Pearl St., located just across the street from their current locations on Pearl Street. Construction is expected to last three to four months, and couple Ross Wallace and Diana Hylton plan to move their two businesses into the building by early 2020.
Hylton said since Him opened, they have seen the empty storefront of Preston Arts Center each day, and they would think about how they wanted the space to come back to life ...
No follow-ups from the News and Tribune. No digging. Just boilerplate, ma'am -- and if we record the lies exactly as they were told to us, our job is finished.
"It was in such poor shape; they told us it was going to fall down if we didn't do something," New Albany city attorney Shane Gibson said of the Reisz building. "This is really going to be nice."
Nice. Very nice.
Like the grand total of between $12 and $15 million in nice taxpayer funds to alleviate David Barksdale's supposed "inhumane" working conditions in the current City-County Building ... but mostly because an imperial mayor requires a suitably imperial palace from which to govern, correct?
Need I contrast the extravagance required by local governing elites with the homeless camp recently demolished on orders of the very same mayor?
That's okay, progressives, I know; cognitive dissonance is growing. Trace it to its source and you'll find one of your own.
NEW ALBANY — It still doesn't look like much. An old building, with no windows and a front wall that has to be supported by large beams. Hard to imagine anything happening to this structure other than being bulldozed.
But plenty has been going on at the old Reisz Furniture building since last October.
Schmitt Furniture's ongoing exterior restoration project took a big turn earlier today. The landmark Schmitt sign isn't going away, just being moved while work is underway.
We are not closing 😉
Every day we get closer to bringing the corner of State and Main back to its original beauty. In order to do that we have to take the sign down to continue with the restoration. This is big. And it’s been a process. This sign has been up for a long, long time. We are so happy to share the amazing transformation with you. This is an exciting time for the Schmitt family. Thank you Rueff Sign Company for handling our sign with great care.
During the course of the work, various bits of history have been revealed.
Schmitt Furniture recently posted these before-and-after shots of progress on the State Street side of the business, which is made up of several older buildings bound together as one. Now their contours are being revealed.
Last year was a blast, so let’s do this again. Help us celebrate our 83rd birthday and party the night away with the Juice Box Heroes. This is a free concert! Food, wine and brew will be available for purchase. Food, beer and wine line up: Chef Walker - BBQ Wick’s Pizza Fistful of Tacos Wine by Huber’s Winery Floyd County Brewing Donum Dei Brewery More to be added ...
NEW ALBANY — A live music venue, a bank and office spaces are some of the new additions coming to Market Street in downtown New Albany through a new redevelopment project.
The Jimmy's Music Center location at the corner of Market Street and Pearl streets is in the process of some major changes. Developer Steve Resch, owner of Resch Construction, purchased the space in November, and he is building offices in the historic building, along with a concert venue and bar in the basement.
Jimmy's Music Center remains open in a smaller space in the same location at 123 E. Market St., and owner James Gaetano is planning to eventually relocate the music shop to another downtown space. A space at the corner of the building's first floor has already been leased to New Washington State Bank, and the other side (where Jimmy's Music Center is now operating) will be a retail space. The second and third floors will be used for office space.
Joe Phillips, owner of Pints & Union, plans to open a live music venue called Misery Loves Company, or the MLC Club, in the downstairs area. The idea of starting a live music venue has been floating around in his head for about five years, he said, and the concept for the upcoming business was inspired by Jimmy Can't Dance, a jazz bar located beneath Another Place Sandwich Shop in Louisville ...
It's a tough break for any locally-owned independent business.
Top Shelf Tactical, LLC is currently closed due to unstable building conditions from construction on the new city hall. Let’s hope construction is speedy and this family owned shop is able to open soon.
The first thought that came to my mind when reports began appearing about the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris was the fall and rise of the Frauenkirche in Dresden.
I last visited Dresden in 1991 (apart from a brief interlude changing trains in 2006). At that time the ruins of the Frauenkirche had been allowed to remain piled where the stones fell after the catastrophic Allied bombing raids in 1945. Dresden was part of East Germany, and the Communists were quite content to use the ruins for propaganda purposes.
For decades, the communist regime of East Germany refused to rebuild the most historic and well-known landmark of Dresden -- the city's dominant Frauenkirche church. Its ruins remained untouched as a symbol against war and as a memorial for those who were killed. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the church was finally rebuilt. Together with other sights and monuments, it now dominates the skyline of Dresden once again.
In assessing the prospects for repairing Notre-Dame, the Frauenkirche is a good place to start.
The damage to Notre Dame cathedral is massive: The roof was destroyed, a spire collapsed and the stone was exposed to immense heat. What will efforts to rebuild look like? We asked one of the engineers behind the reconstruction of Dresden's Frauenkirche church.
Flames consumed the roof and spire of the 13th-century cathedral in Paris. The good news: Gothic architecture is built to handle this kind of disaster.
As the world watched in horror, Notre-Dame Cathedral erupted in flames on Monday evening in Paris, sending massive plumes of smoke rising from the Île de la Cité in the medieval heart of the city. Flames swiftly consumed the entire roof of the structure, and elements of the cathedral, including the central spire over the crossing where the transepts intersect the nave and chancel, collapsed into the blaze. One of the world’s greatest surviving works of Gothic architecture—a monument that had endured for more than 800 years—appeared to be in danger of complete destruction.
But it has survived: While the damage to the interior of the historic building is still uncertain, the fire did not consume Notre-Dame, according to authorities in Paris. The blaze stopped short of the two belfry towers that house the cathedral’s immense bells, the site immortalized by Victor Hugo in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. “The worst has been avoided even though the battle is not completely won,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.
That’s the good news about Gothic architecture: It’s strong stuff, built to withstand even an inferno.
“It’s not that they’re designed to be burned down, but it’s designed so that if the roof burns off, it’s hard for [the fire] to spread to the rest of the building,” says Lisa Reilly, an associate professor of architectural history at the University of Virginia and a scholar of medieval architecture. “In the Middle Ages, the thought was that stone vaults [could be] used to prevent the spread of fire.”
The layers to this discussion are many in number, but I'm not interested in taking a position on the "people versus buildings" debate, at least today. After mulling the Frauenkirche's reconstruction, I found myself thinking about my Sarajevo sojourn in 1987, and later seeing the photos of places I'd visited in the city bombed to rubble during the ensuing Yugoslav civil war. It all might be summarized by the fact that not a lot of what you'll see in European cities is "original."
As devastating as this fire is, Europe has been here before: Wars, accidents, and natural disasters have claimed a great many architectural treasures over the centuries.
And a great many of them have been rebuilt, as will Notre-Dame. Here's a view from the roof in front of the belfry towers, which I took in 1985.
The News and TomMayBune's Chris Morris focuses on one decayed house in one neighborhood, and he is very disturbed by its condition.
Fair enough. You can get the gist and follow the link to his thoughts, below. Before you do so, recall that right across the street, there once was an historic tavern building which was sacrificed for Jeff Gahan's campaign finance enhancement -- and I recall the newspaper having little to say about it at the time.
The point: Morris savaged the condition of the house on the corner at 921 Culbertson, which is adjacent to Team Gahan's pastel gingerbread palaces, and advocated immediate demolition without doing the one simple thing that might explain why anyone would even want to rehabilitate the structure: do two minutes of internet research, then call the guy who owns it and ask him. You know, like a reporter.
As it turned out, the guy who had purchased the house and was about to begin rebuilding it has a great track record of success. Now Morris returns to praise the rehabilitation without once conceding he was dead wrong all the way back in August.
Congrats to Andrew Carter -- and Bill Hanson, you should be embarrassed.
NEW ALBANY — You could say Andrew Carter has a strange passion. But then again, for those who live around one of his ongoing projects, it's more of a special gift.
Carter, whose father and uncle developed Underground Station in New Albany, likes to take old houses and give them new life. He doesn't want homes that are in pristine condition. He wants those that are weeks or days away from being torn down, or in some cases, falling down.
"I am drawn to things that had a life. I enjoy saving them," he said.
Which is exactly what he did at 921 Culbertson Ave. in New Albany. If there was ever a structure ready for the wrecking ball it was this house.
About a month ago, Steve Resch's crew made the final big push to get the Pints&union buildout finished so Joe Phillips' team could open the pub. Since then the heavy lifting of renovation has shifted next door to do the same for The Root, which now has entered the stretch drive toward completion.
Plant the seed, watch it grow. Start digging in your roots.
The Root provides a grounded co-work space to help your business flourish by connecting unconnected people in a versatile environment. Our vision is to successfully serve, connect, and empower professionals throughout our community, allowing for innovation and discovery in a serene, creative environment.
As with the pub, the planning period began more than a year ago.
NEW ALBANY — Mark Morrissey didn’t know what a coworking space was a few years ago. His daughter, Brigid Morrissey, had to explain it to him.
Now, the two locals are opening one in downtown New Albany — and they’re trying to educate others on what it is and why they believe it’s such a good idea.
“I’ve learned a lot about it,” Mark said. “So I’m confident that anybody who knows nothing about it will know as much as I do eventually.”
At the Morrissey’s 110 E. Market St. coworking space, called the Root, independent workers, such as freelancers and building-less business owners, will be able to work away from home in comfort and collaborate with other members ...
I'm delighted to get to know the Morrisseys, and to me, there's a great deal of potential symmetry between The Roots and Pints&union. Very soon, we'll find out.
I've been taking photos throughout the Pints&union renovation, hoping to make some sort of time-lapse collage at the end.
As noted yesterday, the finish line is close, indeed. These views are from Thursday afternoon, July 12, and omit only the bar itself, as yesterday the top of the bar was being readied for finishing.
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