King Philip III (El Rey Felipe III, 1598-1621) of Spain.WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) – Two letters from the early 17th century expressing Spain’s fears of the new English settlement at Jamestown are going on display at Colonial Williamsburg.
The letters written by Spanish King Phillip III were donated by best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell.
The Richmond-based writer has been an avid follower of the Jamestown Rediscovery archaeological project for many years. Cornwell acquired the historic letters several years ago at the New York auction of an old Spanish family archive.
Officials say the Spain was concerned the English would create a base in Virginia to attack Spanish ships in the Atlantic Ocean and raid as far as the Pacific Ocean as well.
The letters are on display at the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library.
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
King Philip III (El Rey Felipe III, 1598-1621) of Spain.
The Golden Dome, University of Notre Dame, in a picture taken by Ted Moseby in 2006 and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – The University of Notre Dame hopes to turn a vacant brick building on South Bend’s west side into an arts and culture center.
The South Bend Tribune reports the city’s redevelopment commission has approved a tentative plan to provide $930,000 toward repairing the building. Notre Dame will provide an additional $1.5 million.
South Bend community and economic development director Don Inks says the next step is to work out a memorandum of understanding between the city, South Bend Heritage and the university. The building is across the street from Indiana University South Bend’s Civil Rights Heritage Center and down the block from the Center for History and Studebaker National Museum.
The plan calls for using the building as a base for various community arts and cultural centers.
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Information from: South Bend Tribune, http://www.southbendtribune.com
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-07-04-11 1222GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The Golden Dome, University of Notre Dame, in a picture taken by Ted Moseby in 2006 and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Cincinnati Art Carved sideboard with Benjamin Pittman carving, possibly made for exhibition. Estimate: $10,000-$15,000. Image courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions. CINCINNATI – Cowan’s Summer Fine and Decorative Art Auction to take place on Saturday, July 23, promises to be an exciting event. The 364-lot sale, to be held at Cowan’s sales room, will offer fine and decorative art items from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Highlights in the sale include a 1944 Martin D-28 herringbone guitar, and a Cincinnati Art Carved sideboard with Benjamin Pittman carving.
LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
Cowan’s will offer a George Jensen sterling coffee and tea service estimated to bring anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000. This coffee and tea service is made in the blossom pattern and includes a coffee pot, teapot, covered sugar, cream pitcher, milk jug and oblong tray, all of which have carved ivory side handles.
A 1944 Martin D-28 herringbone guitar is estimated to sell for $30,000-$40,000. The guitar still retains its original keys. C.F. Martin & Co.’s primary factory is located in Nazareth, Pa., and is renowned for its high quality lines of guitars.
A Cincinnati Art Carved sideboard with Benjamin Pittman carving, possibly made for exhibition is estimated to bring $10,000-$15,000. It is a rare example of a Cincinnati Art Carved School piece bearing the personal stamp of the school’s founder.
Another great item in the sale is a copper panel by Maria Longworth Nichols Storer. The panel is American, circa 1913, and is embossed with fish and sea creatures with bejeweled eyes and is estimated at $5,000-$7,000. It is mounted in a wood frame, under glass, and rests on a small custom-made tabletop.
A monumental sideboard, atrributed to Alexander Roux, is expected to bring anywhere from $6,000-$10,000. This beautifully carved 19th-century American sideboard was manufactured by P. Mallard of New Orleans.
A Large KPM Porcelain plaque of Queen Louise is estimated to bring $6,000-$8,000. The plaque is German, 19th century, and depicts Queen Louise of Prussia.
A Queen Anne-style secretary bookcase is estimated to bring $8,000-$10,000. This bookcase is English 19th century and is in walnut with pine and oak secondary. Having dovetailed construction, the upper case opens to a fitted architectural interior, and the lower case opens to a fitted interior with a tooled leather writing surface.
A Picasso ceramic jug is estimated to sell anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000. This ceramic jug depicts a man and horse in black, white, blue and brown glaze and the base is marked “Edition Picasso 216/300.”
A Margaret Bourke-White photograph of the U.S.S. Akron airship is expected to bring $4,000-$7,000.
For details check Cowan’s website at www.cowanauctions.com or phone 513-871-1670.
Hadrian’s villa in its current state of ruin. Photo taken in spring of 2006 by Leoboudv, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
ROME – Lack of money mean parts of Roman emperor Hadrian’s villa have had to be closed off to tourists because they are in danger of collapse, an Italian paper reported Wednesday.
The historic site at Tivoli, 24 kilometres (15 miles) from Rome, received only 370,000 euros (530,000 dollars) to maintain the villa and its grounds, Il Corriere della Sera reported.
But those responsible for the site, which spreads over 80 hectares (nearly 200 acres), say it needs at least 2.5 million euros, the paper said. They complained that over the past three years they had received only 1.5 million euros of the 6.7 million they needed.
As a result, they had had to close off more and more areas with metal barriers and signs warning of the risk of collapse.
The villa, known as the Villa Adriana, has been listed on UNESCO’s world heritage list since December 1999. Over the past 10 years however, it has lost 41.8 percent of its paying visitors: from 187,202 in 2000 down to 108,811 in 2010.
One expert, Federica Chiappetta, told the paper that as well as the state of the site, visitors had also been put off by the lack of information.
The villa was built between 117 and 138 AD on the orders of the then emperor, Hadrian.
UNESCO calls it “a masterpiece that uniquely brings together the highest expressions of the material cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world.”
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Hadrian’s villa in its current state of ruin. Photo taken in spring of 2006 by Leoboudv, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
OAKLAND, Calif. – Clars Auction Gallery is gearing up for an exciting classic vehicles auction to be held on Tuesday, July 12, featuring the life-long collection of a major San Francisco Bay area “mobile” aficionado. In all, nearly 100 vehicles will be offered on behalf of the bankruptcy trustee. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
Spanning over eight decades of vehicle makes and manufacturers, domestic and foreign, this collection is one not to be missed. The sale’s headliners include a spectacular 1929 Cadillac Series 341-B Roadster, a cool 1953 Spohn Roadster and a sexy 1931 Stutz Model MB convertible. This is just a taste of the wealth of classic cars to be offered. Further highlights include a 1934 Cadillac Series 452-D limo and a rare 1924 Locomobile Touring car. Flashing forward to the more contemporary models to be offered finds a 2002 Bentley Continental R and 1996 Jaguar XJS convertible. But there’s far more than cars.
This private collection also features vintage motorcycles, trailers and trucks. A 1937 Pierce Arrow Travelodge trailer will be offered, as will a 1935 and a 1936 Curtiss Aerocars 26-foot trailer; and a 1935 24-foot Travel Coach that was used in the movie Aviator. A 1940 Monk boat with floating boathouse (in Seattle) is among the unusual “mobiles” in this great collection. There’s even a 1958 Mack fire truck.
In addition, there will be a large amount of vintage cars, trucks and trailers in various stages of restoration to catch the attention of parts collectors.
The auction will be held at Clars Auction Gallery in Oakland, California. For additional information on any lot in the sale, call 510-428-0100.
1929 Cadillac Series 341-B roadster. Image courtesy of Clars.1931 Stutz Model MB convertible. Image courtesy of Clars.1937 Pierce Arrow Travelodge trailer. Image courtesy of Clars.
The S.S. Admiral retained its signature Art Deco look from a 1930s makeover. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. ST. LOUIS (AP) – A century-old riverboat-turned-casino that folded under withering competition from the St. Louis region’s growing array of gambling sites is headed to a scrapyard, piece by piece.
Crews are dismantling the S.S. Admiral along the Mississippi River at St. Louis, months after a would-be auction failed to attract what the owner considered serious bids for the vessel that until last summer was The President Casino.
Gateway Marine Services’ Bill Kline told the Belleville News-Democrat that about a half dozen of his company’s workers are using saws, cutting torches and other tools to pick apart the once-shimmering, floating giant with an Art Deco look.
“The boat’s being recycled,” Kline said, noting that the dismantling must be done meticulously. “Old boats tend to be like an archaeological dig. The materials are in layers, so you have to be very conscious of flammable material. So you can’t just break out the torches and go at it.”
The work on the river’s Missouri side, beneath the Martin Luther King Bridge linking the state with Illinois, will take about a month before the boat will be taken to Alton, Ill., just north of St. Louis for completion.
Kline called the Alton site preferable, given that it has better access and the location of locks and a dam there mean the river conditions don’t vary as much.
At tens of thousands of square feet, the vessel was billed in the auction postings as the world’s biggest inland entertainment vessel.
Built in 1907 as a Mississippi-crossing ferry, the boat was lengthened by 70 feet in the 1930s and converted into what was then the only air-conditioned excursion boat, according to the eBay listing.
The President was among Missouri’s first casinos after the state legalized casino gambling in 1993. But over time, the vessel permanently moored near the equally glistening Gateway Arch became by far the St. Louis area’s smallest casino and was hampered by its age, size and location.
Flooding over the past several years frequently forced it to close temporarily, and its business suffered as more modern, fancier casinos cropped up around St. Louis. In December 2007, Pinnacle opened a massive downtown casino called Lumiere Place just a few hundred yards from the President, hastening the boat’s demise.
And in March of last year, Pinnacle opened its River City Casino in south St. Louis County
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-06-30-11 1733GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
The S.S. Admiral retained its signature Art Deco look from a 1930s makeover. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
NASA photograph of Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 lunar module pilot. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. MIAMI (AP) – NASA is suing former astronaut Edgar Mitchell to get back a camera that went to the moon on the Apollo 14 mission – a historic device Mitchell apparently tried to sell recently at an auction.
The lawsuit filed in federal court contends that the 16mm Data Acquisition Camera is NASA’s property and there are no records showing it was transferred to Mitchell. NASA calls Mitchell, one of only 12 humans to walk the lunar surface, “a former NASA employee who is exercising improper dominion and control” over the camera.
“The United States has made numerous requests to defendant and defendant’s counsel for return of the NASA camera to no avail,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Macchiaroli wrote in the lawsuit filed Thursday.
“All equipment and property used during NASA operations remains the property of NASA unless explicitly released or transferred to another party,” Macchiaroli added.
Mitchell, 80, has a home in the Lake Worth, just south of West Palm Beach, but a phone listing for him was disconnected. His attorney did not immediately respond to a phone message and email. A message was also left with the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which Mitchell founded in 1972 as an organization dedicated to exploring mysteries of the human mind and universe.
NASA contends in the lawsuit that it learned in March that the British auction house Bonhams was planning a “Space History Sale” that included an item labeled “movie camera from the lunar surface.” Bonhams also provided a more detailed technical description and four photos of the camera.
The item, according to the auction house description, “came directly from the collection of Apollo 14 Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell.” The camera was one of two that went to the moon’s surface on the mission, during which Mitchell and Alan Shepard spent about nine hours collecting 95 pounds of lunar samples.
One of their achievements was showing that astronauts could walk long distances safely. They covered about two miles on one of their expeditions. Perhaps more famous was Shepard’s attempt at swatting a golf ball on the moon, and Mitchell made a “javelin” throw by tossing an unneeded metal rod.
Mitchell also made news by attempting to communicate using telepathy with friends on Earth during the mission. He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and other awards.
Since his retirement, Mitchell has devoted much of his life to exploring the mind, physics, the possibility of space aliens and ways of linking religion with scientific fact.
“He has devoted the last 38 years to studying human consciousness and psychic and paranormal phenomena in the search for common ground between science and spirit,” reads a biography on Mitchell’s Internet site.
Mitchell’s site says that he makes between 10 and 20 speeches a year and regularly appears at scientific and other conferences around the world. He also sells autographed photos of himself on the site and has links to articles he has written.
No immediate court dates were set for the lawsuit, which asks a judge to declare the camera U.S. property and prevent Mitchell from selling it. It also asks that Mitchell be forced to pay all legal and court fees arising from the case.
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Edgar Mitchell Web site: http://www.edmitchellapollo14.com/
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Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Olson House is open to the public as a part of the Farnsworth Museum complex. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. CUSHING, Maine (AP) – A weather-beaten farmhouse in Maine, featured in the backdrop of one of the most famous paintings from the 20th century, is now a national landmark.
The Olson House in Cushing where Andrew Wyeth painted Christina’s World was one of 14 landmarks to receive the designation from U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Thursday.
“It’s now affirmation that it’s an American icon,” said Christropher Brownawell, executive director of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, which has owned the farmhouse for the past 20 years.
Wyeth, who lived in Pennsylvania, spent 30 summers in Maine and he used the farm as a backdrop for the 1948 painting of Christina Olson, who suffered from polio and was unable to walk, crawling through a field toward the farm.
The Olson House, which overlooks the St. George River and Muscongus Bay, is where Wyeth, who died in 2009 at age 91, developed a relationship with Christina and Alvaro Olson that spanned 30 years. Wyeth’s gravestone is near the property.
The Farnsworth Art Museum is currently displaying a collection of 50 watercolors and drawings depicting the Olsons and the farmhouse. Christina’s World is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
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AP-WF-07-02-11 1528GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
The Olson House is open to the public as a part of the Farnsworth Museum complex. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
A single-owner collection of Clarice Cliff pottery, sold at Skinner’s on June 25, included many of the most desirable forms and patterns. This Bizarre Ware Lucerne single-handled jug in the Lotus shape sold for $7,110, far above the modest $500-600 estimate. A recent reference included this design in a list of Cliff’s “Top Twenty Patterns.” Courtesy Skinner Inc.
BOSTON – Perfect for summer, colorful art pottery designed by Clarice Cliff (1899-1972) is covered with blooming flowers and ripening fruit. Although the English artist of the Art Deco period also created spare geometric motifs, the majority of her patterns feature glimpses of the natural world.
Produced in the late 1920s and 1930s, Cliff’s patterns sound like marvelous bouquet:; Tulip, Anemone, Crocus, Hydrangea, and Nasturtium are only a few of the many available in the antiques market. Likewise, the fanciful fruit basket is filled with designs like Melon, Oranges, Passionfruit, and Berries.
At other times, Cliff created charming landscapes filled with stylized trees and houses. Orange Roof Cottage recalls a scene from the English countryside, while patterns like Honolulu or Applique Lucerne draw inspiration from more exotic locales.
Gibraltar, introduced in 1931, is a seascape with sailboat, painted in soft colors. Clarice Cliff created so many varied designs in such a short time that there is always a rare pattern or form to delight the serious collector.
On June 25, 2011, Skinner Inc. in Boston offered an extraordinary one-owner collection of Clarice Cliff pottery in their sale of 20th Century Furniture and Decorative Arts.
The event attracted bids from around the world, and the total realized for the group tripled the modest estimates.
Jugs in the rounded “Lotus” shape proved especially popular; one in the Gardenia pattern sold for $1,422, another in the Autumn pattern filled with balloon-like trees for $3851, and a third in the rare Lucerne design for $7,110.
After the sale, Skinner department head Jane Prentiss explained why Cliff’s output remains in such strong demand among collectors: “It’s very cheerful. It’s the pure sense of decorative. People who contacted me were interested because this collection was fresh to the market, so it wasn’t the same pieces of Clarice Cliff going through various auctions.”
She continued, “I think it’s interesting that the countries that were most interested in it were Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England. Some collectors get jaded, but these people were truly enthusiastic about the material. They were explaining to me that some of the forms hadn’t come out in a while.”
Prentiss admits to having personal favorites. “I live in the woods, and I liked the Pine Groves tea service,” Prentiss said. “The lady who bought it was so excited. The bidders’ enthusiasm was just contagious.”
The 12 pieces in this lot were sold for $1,659 (est. $500-600). The offering included one of the sought-after conical sugar shakers found in many Cliff patterns, as well as teapot, sugar, creamer, and cups and saucers.
Prentiss also pointed out the soft browns and greens and rich reds of the Cabbage Flower pattern, adding “I tend to go for the more organic colors.” Five demitasse cups and saucers in the pattern brought $948; a bowl and octagonal plate were sold for $356.
A similar color scheme appears in Cliff’s Newlyn pattern, which depicts a dreamlike landscape with a red-roofed cottage at center. A group of thirteen pieces with this design sold for $7,110.
Serious collectors know that Clarice Cliff pottery is a complex subject. There were major design collections such as her Bizarre and Fantasque lines, a wealth of different patterns, and a variety of shapes with their own factory names to which the designs were applied.
For example, the Autumn pattern mentioned above belongs to the Fantasque collection and was applied to a two-handled jug or pitcher in the Lotus shape. While the rounded Lotus is a more traditional shape, Cliff also invented table services in angular new forms – circles, triangles, and cones. Buyers compete for the unusual rectangular plates and triangular tea cups.
Fortunately, collectors can consult a number of illustrated references to learn more about Cliff’s career and her wares. Serious academic interest grew when the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery in England organized an exhibition of her work in 1972.
Recent works include Comprehensively Clarice Cliff by Greg Slater and Jonathan Brough (Thames and Hudson 2005) and Clarice Cliff by Andrew Casey (Antique Collectors’ Club 2010). Collector will also enjoy the large-format softcover Clarice Cliff: The Bizarre Affair by Leonard Griffin, Louis Meisel, and Susan Pear Meisel (Abrams 1988), which is considered a staple in any Clarice Cliff reference library.
Some details of the designer’s biography are worth noting. In spite of the sophistication of her designs, Cliff was not a well-educated artistic dilettante, but rather a talent who emerged from working-class origins. She was born in the Staffordshire pottery district at Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1899. The potteries commonly employed women decorators, whom they paid very low wages, to turn out hand-painted or transfer-printed sets of dishes.
Clarice knew the business at an early age because her sister Sarah was in charge of the decorating shop at Johnson Brothers. Clarice’s formal education ended at 13, when she secured a post at Lingard & Webster, which paid only two shillings a week. As she continued to work at various potteries, she received additional artistic training and eventually her skills as a painter and designer were recognized by management.
In 1927 when the Art Deco style began to receive public attention, Cliff came up with a new decorating range she called “Bizarre.” In his recent book, Andrew Casey writes, “At a time when most people were buying period and traditionally styled pottery decorated with rubber stamped motifs, Bizarre burst on to an unsuspecting market in a riot of colour that made a significant impact on the British pottery industry.” The complete history of the designer’s extraordinary career is well worth studying.
In his introduction to Casey’s reference Eric Knowles offers this explanation for the appeal of Clarice Cliff’s pottery: “Her creations are for the most part cheerful, with the ability to raise a smile, and any art form that can play on our emotions in such a positive manner has to be worthy of the international acclaim she continues to enjoy.”
From left to right, a Fantasque Swirls jug sold for $3,081; a Bizarre Ware Blue Firs vase $1,778; a Fantasque Autumn or Balloon Trees two-handled jug $3,851; a vase with stemmed flower $356; and a Fantasque Gardenia Jug $1,422. Courtesy Skinner Inc.Summer fruits and flowers brighten Cliff designs. The Oranges sugar and bowl brought $296, a Bizarre Ware Alton charger and plate $1,185, and a lot of five varied Fantasque pieces $1,778. Courtesy Skinner Inc.This group of tea wares in the Bizarre Ware Pine Groves pattern, sold for $1,659, would be perfect for a mountain retreat. Courtesy Skinner Inc.Dreamlike landscapes cover this group of Clarice Cliff shapes in the Newlyn pattern, which brought $7,110. Courtesy Skinner Inc.Sold as a group for $3,851, the five pieces with bold geometric patterns included a round Honolulu vase at left. Courtesy Skinner Inc.
The Marathon Motor Works factory was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Barry Walker was just 28 years old in 1986 when he first laid eyes on the Marathon motor car factory in what had become a rough part of town. The neglected, decaying Clinton Street structure was surrounded by weeds and inhabited by addicts.
“It was rough,” Walker says. “Dead dogs, needles, drug addicts. It was disgusting when I came over here.”
But Walker couldn’t stop thinking about the space, its proximity to downtown and what the history behind it could be. “I was taken by this building and just kept coming back and coming back,” he says.
Walker had been in the market for a building for his burgeoning business, Ingenuity Shop, which builds audio/video consoles and computer workstations. He also began building elevator cabs for an elevator company and supplying skilled labor to Vanderbilt.
“I got really big, really fast,” he says, adding he had more than 30 employees. “I would interview people at restaurants because didn’t want them to know how little I was.”
His office at the time was about 700 square feet, much too small for his needs. But space wasn’t a problem once he bought the 32,000-square-foot building.
“People are too apt to see old buildings and say, ‘Ah, it looks like hell, tear it down.’ We are tearing down pieces of beautiful art when we tear them down,” he says. “You can’t get this kind of stuff back.”
After he moved his business in, he still had an abundance of space he didn’t want to go to waste.
“I was creative, had done sculpture and all kinds of stuff, and so I said, ‘Gee, I’ll fix this space up for some real creative people and make it a real fun place,’” he says. So he did just that, fixing the upstairs of the building and renting out the units to an eclectic group of clients.
Since that initial purchase in 1986, Walker has been adding piecemeal to it, buying up the other buildings that were built at different times – the oldest in1881 and the newest in 1912. He didn’t know what the buildings were when he bought it but now he is an expert on all things Marathon.
“In 1989, I finally found out it was part of the Marathon car company,” he says. “I started researching and there really wasn’t that much out there.” No stranger to treasure hunting, thanks to a history of scuba diving for shipwrecks, he kept digging. Then, he found out his hometown of Jackson, Tenn., is where the company originated.
In 1884, the Southern Engine and Boiler Works opened in Jackson, manufacturing gasoline engines and boilers for industrial use. By 1904, it had grown into the largest plant of its kind in the nation. Cars were becoming more popular and by 1909, the name was changed to Marathon. The company offered two models.
Marathon moved its operations to Nashville in 1910, but it was in the old building in Jackson that Walker hit jackpot.
“It was vacant and they told me I could have anything I wanted,” he says. “I found a sealed off darkroom, so I knocked out the plaster and found that it had 68 glass negatives and blueprints of the Jackson plant and all the Nashville stuff. I felt like Indiana Jones.”
He now owns and is fixing that building, too.
By 1914, Marathon had ceased operations and stopped manufacturing the cars. “At the time they made between 8,000 and 10,000 cars and had a dealership in every state of the country.” Walker says there are now only eight known left in existence. He owns four of them.
Of course, not everyone initially saw the beauty and potential of what is now Marathon Village. People thought he was crazy, Walker says, adding he acted the part – complete with a gun he would shoot into the ground – so people in that rough neighborhood wouldn’t bother him.
“I had to come in like a nut and have no fear,” he says. “People really thought I was crazy for buying this place. But that is how things get started. Someone has to make a move. And I knew it was only a matter of time. I would sit up here on top of this building and see all this land around here and be looking right downtown. Nobody could really see it, but I could.”
As the years have passed, the buildings have become a growing museum for all of Walker’s Marathon findings, while more and more tenants continue to move in. About six years ago, Lightning 100 moved their offices in, after a decade located on top of the L&C tower.
“It is unique and eclectic like we are,” says Fred Buc, general manager for the station. And while they gave up a killer view, what they got in return was easier access and like-minded neighbors. Yazoo Brewery anchored the other side of the building, which was a good way to help people understand where they were now located. Now, that space is occupied by the Corsair Artisan Distillery.
“It cost this company a lot of money for parking downtown every month, so it saved us a bunch of money moving here,” Buc says. “But what we lost in the process was being able to walk out our front door and have 20 places to eat and a post office and a bank and drycleaners and Walgreens and the Arcade. In return we got easier access in and out for our sales people who come in and out all day.
“And even though we are a little bit harder to find now, at least the people who are coming to us don’t have to fight for a parking space and pay $10. It is just easier.”
Among the nearly 50 tenants of Marathon Village are photographers, distillers, personal trainers, interior designers, sculptors, printmakers, music video producers, recording studios and advertising agencies.
The tenants seem to love being there, but might love Walker even more. After working through serious motorcycle accident three years ago, they rallied around him.
“Barry is one of a kind,” Buc says. “He has had some misfortune but he really is surrounded by a lot of people who care about him and love him. He has really bounced back, and I think that is due to the closeness of the people he associates.
“The building is his baby and, while a lot of tenants could go to other places that may be more developed or fancier or ritzier, I think a lot of people have chosen to come here because of him and because of the uniqueness of the building and the area.”
Walker feels the same about the building and neighborhood he has helped bring back.
“We never have a boring time,” he says. “I have had tons of people who want to buy but I am not interested in selling. I have my own little village. It is my own little hangout.”
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Information from: The Nashville Ledger, http://www.nashvilleledger.com
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-07-02-11 1639GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
The Marathon Motor Works factory was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
