Sometimes you are in the right place at the right time, and are blissfully oblivious of this fact. Last Tuesday, in my large straw hat, clutching two cameras, I made my way through downtown Greenville, Kentucky, the county seat of Muhlenberg County. I always take the long road home, visiting towns I don’t know, and occasionally finding a rural treasure that necessitates stopping in the middle of the road for an opportunistic photograph. Yesterday, I shared one of my finds, a delicious commercial building with a facade brilliant in glazed blue tile on Instagram – only to find out that it (and an adjacent building, both listed in the National Register of Historic Places ) was torn down in the wee hours the day after my visit.
The Malone and Miller Buildings, July 19, 2022.
Earlier this year, a fire destroyed the large corner buildings that backed up to the two pictured above (note empty lot on right side of the photo) burned. The Thomas C. Summers and J.L. Rogers Buildings on Main Cross Street were both engulfed by flames in April 2022 and later razed.
The corner buildings on fire in April 2022. Photo from the Greenville Fire Department Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=5491905084177442&set=pcb.5491914930843124
As is too often the case, a verdict was reached that the two surviving buildings couldn’t remain standing, so around 2:30 on the morning of July 20, 2022, they too were razed.
I do not know how bad the damage was from the fire in the spring, and local governments have a responsibility to keep the public safe. If the property owner could not secure the building envelope and restore the structure, then sometimes demolition is the only alternative.
Circa 1984 photograph from the NRHP files.
What’s so distressing about this is not just the impact – and huge hole – that this leaves in small Greenville (population 4,233), but that these buildings (with some thought and imagination) need not have been consigned to the landfill. Even deconstruction would have salvaged valuable building materials that could have been reused.
A fire recently consumed a large swath of downtown Millersburg, Kentucky, and I was fortunate enough to be privy to the behind-the-scenes-efforts of preservationists and lovers of historic buildings to help salvage the irreplaceable building materials from that tragedy. It won’t replace the buildings, but it does save a small piece of the past.
The facade of Malone Building dated to 1947, the actual building itself was (I think) older.
The two-story brick building at 108 North Main Street, the one that immediately caught my eye with its striking blue facade, was part of the “Modernize Main Street” movement that swept across America in the mid-20th century. Property owners used new materials to update historic buildings and appeal to shoppers that may have been drawn to new shopping centers far removed from the central business district.
A detail of the gorgeous glazed blue tile on the Malone Building.
W.C .Malone, a local saw mill & lumber yard proprietor and contractor, was responsible for this resplendent burst of chic mid-century on Main Street (he also donated the land for Lake Malone State Park, where I spent a few wonderful days when I was nine years old, and went home quite sunburned).
The second story and cornice level of the Martin Building.
The Martin Building boasted a more conventional early 20th century facade, with painted brick rising up two stories to a corbelled cornice. The circa 1907 building was originally home to the Martin Dry Goods Company.
A section of the 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showing the buildings in question.
Historic downtowns are defined by rebuilding campaigns. Buildings frequently burned in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, necessitating the reinvention of the commercial heart of a town. The problem is that now reinvention usually doesn’t happen – and if rebuilding does take place, it is so often soulless and out of scale and place.
Looking north from the Courthouse toward the Martin and Malone Buildings.
I didn’t know, of course, that barely a week after I squinted at these buildings under the unforgiving July sun that I would be struggling to write their obituaries. And what a dismal memorial this is! I know that this corner of buildings was well-known and well-loved by many residents of Greenville, and I just happened to catch the last two survivors on their last day of existence.
So much building materials are disrespected and thrown away it very well can be recycled and look beautiful again I would like to help stop that demolition in any way possible. At least until the good has been gotten out of the building. It seems like they’re greedy Ann don’t want anybody else to have it
As terrible as the FIVE alarm fire was, I would have seriously questioned the structural integrity of all the buildings connected. We only live a block and half away. I was very upset to see the buildings go. I always love when small towns take care of their downtown area. You also need to remember the dangers that linger in older buildings: lead paint, asbestos, and mercury. I’m sure the city commission had thought long and hard about razing the remaining buildings, hence why it took until July for them to come down. I hope the build something back to take their place.
The reason why the building had to be torn down. Is safety for the public. During the fire, a wall had began to collapse. The smoke had also damaged the Martin and Malone buildings. The structural integrity of the building was no longer viable to leave standing. I was there during the fire and had spent 17 1/2 hours straight with no rest ensuring that the fire would not spread to any other buildings.
I watched the flames devour two of Greenville’s historic buildings in April, 2022.I realized what was once a symbol of prosperity fall to only a memory of when Muhlenberg County was the largest producer of Coal in the world. Fire has claimed two of the 4 corners in downtown. I hope the city will move quickly, along with the owners, to create an attractive use of the lot and continue its unique blend of past and present.