1149 Jefferson is a fairly good sized building. At 46 by 138 ft it has about 6000 sq ft of usable space. This is about the same as the three floors of the building downtown but with out the loss of 1000 sq ft for stair well and elevator. Down town may had more traffic but this location has a parking lot and side yard for a garden. it is surrounded by combination residential /business locations and is zoned for business/ light manufacturing. It is in a two block wide zone between Lowertown, The Fountain avenue/ Jefferson ave Residential district and the Business strip along Broadway.
Broadway and Jefferson are the two main streets in downtown Paducah. Here at the Corner of Jefferson and 12th St, Jefferson is one way, away from downtown and the river. It is paired with Broadway a block south that heads downtown and toward the river. It is not on the I-24 Business loop but instead is a main route for the locals traveling back from work or shopping down town. Click on the pictures for more detailed view.
Here I am in front of the SOLD sign on closing day. I look pleased with myself but I am not sure if I should be. At the time I thought we paid more than the property was worth as a commercial building in it's condition. It had been on the market for three years and is in an improving but still rough neighborhood.
The Maytag business had failed when Maytag sold out to Whirlpool and all the distributors were reduced to parts dealers when Matag started selling to Home Depot and Lowes.
I found out that what we paid was less than the sales commission and the mortgage. Except for their reputation they could have done better by just letting the bank repossess it.
After we bought the building we found out that others would have paid as much. Or so they said.
Here is the side toward 12th street. Not a single Window. Turns out it is at the property line and fire code permits only fire windows and doors. You can see the corner of a car sales lot across 12th st from us. This wall faces west southwest so it gets the brunt of sun from 10am to sunset. If we fix up the stucco it might make a good mural wall. Unfortunately because of the one way direction on Jefferson people driving by on Jefferson would only see this in their rear view mirrors.
This next picture is the side that shows to traffic along Jefferson It is a continuation of the side with the SOLD Sign shown above. The paved area is the end of the parking lot and the grassed area is included in the building property.
The Front part of the building was built around 1908 as a double storefront. Some time later but before the mid twenties a rear section was built to double the building size. (See the color change in the brick this side of the rebuilt side door?)
Here is the other back corner of the parking lot. The setback is six feet and the fellow that bought that house from the bank didn't realize that the property line was two feet from his house. He has refurbished it into two apartments and plans to rent it out. Turns out his parents owned our building during the 20's when it was a grocery store. Apparently they sold it to Piggly Wiggly in about 1927 with plans to retire. Didn't happen because in the crash of 1929 they lost the proceeds. Piggly Wiggly never opened.
In the flood of 1937 the wood over concrete floor was ruined and the building began a long period of severe decline. In 2001 the Local Maytag distributors bought the building for $20000, put on a new roof and a parking lot. They also had to add an earthquake wall, extra supports for the roof and commercial code wireing. I hear the roof had fallen in in several spots and it was a mess. I think the plan was to also rework the back area as a living quarters but it didn't happen.
This is a view down the shared driveway. The back neighbor is a Plumber and has his home and business all under one roof. our property line is down the middle of the pavement. Down the driveway across the street you can see a house that was seized at one point by the city after it was found that it was being used to run a drug and prostitution ring. Apparently the absentee owners are a large family of brothers and sisters that inherited the house and could never agree on what to do with it. They are just lucky it wasn't used as a meth house and blown up. I think the owners had no idea what it was being used for. Apparently meth fires were common in the area about 5 years ago. The shared driveway connects up to a legally dead end alley but every one including the city trash trucks use it to cut through. It means we have the possibility of stepping out onto our back driveway and getting hit by a car cutting across our property. The world is not perfect.
This is the front showroom. It and the office on the left are the only real finished rooms in the building. I cannot figure out why the air conditioner was just hung from the ceiling. There is plenty of room behind the back wall where it could have been out of sight.
The ceiling in the showroom is original tin tile. this is a section above some of the dropped ceiling that in in its original shape.
The area behind the showroom was being used as a garage. they had a high performance car that they had souped up for rally racing. The whole family was crazy about cars.
This room is about the middle of the building. It will be our laundry room. on the right is the former back wall of the original building. On the left is a transverse wall the city required the former owners to put in to give the building better earthquake resistance.
This is in the same room looking in the other direction. They have build a crazy warren of rooms. you are looking through to a working bathroom. We expect to tear this out and rework the entire plumbing of the building.
The next three views are in a 45 by 40 ft nearly square room that will be Helene's Quilting studio. in this view you can see the other side of the Earthquake wall.
Here is an angle looking to the back (NE) of the building. You can see a little of the condition of the floor which is concrete with groves where the former flooring support strips have been removed.
Here is a better view. we will have to resurvace most of the rear and middle of the building.
This is looking to the wall that has the grass on the other side.