Tuesday February 20, 2007 
On Main Street: Restoration of two Stanford buildings sets downtown pace 
By HERB BROCK
herb@amnews.com 

STANFORD - As far as construction projects go, a parking garage may provide a practical shot in the arm in a city's efforts to revitalize its downtown. But a cold, sterile building where people just park their vehicles normally wouldn't bring tingles of excitement. 

But excitement does surround the parking garage in downtown Stanford, which was completed last year. The little 25-space garage has become a big boon to the downtown as it has been something of a community center. 

"As welcome as the parking garage was, some people thought, 'What's the big deal about a building that can hold only 25 cars,'" said Mary Middleton, manager of Stanford's 10 year-old Main Street Program. "Well, the building has been holding a lot more than cars. 

"What was 'just a parking garage' truly has become a community center," she said. 
The garage has been used for numerous community activities, including an art show, auctions and community seasonal and holiday events, Middleton said, noting that more than 1,500 children attended a city Halloween party at the garage last October. 

"Plans are to hold a rock festival in the garage, and several other events are being planned for it," she said. "There was an anticipation that the facility would be used for more than just parked cars, and it was wired and bathroom facilities were included. And, in the future, one end may be closed so heating can be installed." 

While the parking garage/community center is a major new development in the Stanford Main Street Program's revitalization efforts over the last decade, it is hardly the only significant achievement of the program, Middleton said. 

"Also in 2006, the restoration and rehabilitation done on the Old Presbyterian Meeting House, an historic log structure, was completed and the building was dedicated in November," she said, noting that a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant was used to finance the project. The building will serve as headquarters for the local historical society, she said. 

Other major projects in recent years have included the restoration and rehabilitation of the First Southern National Bank building and block and of Coleman's Drug Store. 

Setting the stage 
According to the Kentucky Main Street Program, more than $1 million in local, state and federal funds - and this doesn't include private investment - has been spent on downtown projects in Stanford just over the last few years, including more than $500,000 in Kentucky Renaissance and other downtown revitalization funds in 2004 and 2005. 

"Many of the early grants were for projects that involved facade improvements," Middleton said. "Once the first few facades were done, other businesses were able to see what a little paint and some architectural restructuring could do to their exteriors." 

She said a couple of businesses already had set the stage for the Main Street Program's facade work, noting that Saufley Implement and The Interior Journal got a "jump start on making facade improvements" as both businesses did their projects before the program was started in 1997. 

"In recent years, we've moved onto major building restoration, rehabilitation and new construction," she said. "We've been on something of a roll." 

Middleton credits the "roll" not only to the Kentucky Main Street Program, Kentucky Heritage Council and the Kentucky Renaissance Grant Program, the three related state agencies involved in the planning, support and funding of local Main Street programs and projects, but also to local businesspeople and civic leaders. 

"We have been so fortunate to have businessmen who have been so cooperative and had such a vision for not only their businesses but for the whole downtown," she said. "And the support of city and county and various civic leaders has been phenomenal." 

Progressive attitude pays off 
The progressive attitude of the business and community leaders has paid off in not only more customers coming to existing stores but the development of new businesses downtown, said Middleton, citing as examples Kentucky Soaps and Such, which sells bread, beans, teas, pottery and books as well as goat milk soap; Hilltop Florists; and an art gallery in the basement of the Historic Stanford Depot. 

"We're going to be adding a pizza store, which will be the first franchise of a Michigan-based company, and an eye doctor's office with two doctors," she said. "While it's not a downtown project, the community will benefit by the Goodwill moving into the vacant, old Wal-Mart building." 

Also on tap are the construction of a new library and a hospital and the building of a replica of Logan's Fort near its original site on Martin Luther King Boulevard by local businessman Alan Sanders, said Middletown. The fort project will be partly funded through the sale of individual logs, she said. 

Meanwhile, Middleton is planning the annual Main Street Program fundraiser. Last year, 23 milk cans were painted with scenes from the city, including the courthouse, and sold for more than $5,000. That money was put in a fund to buy street benches and trash receptacles. A year earlier, quilts made by local women sold for $2,000. 

The "tremendous amount of involvement" by local people in the little fundraisers matches the interest shown by local business and community leaders in the big projects, said Middleton. Together, they show her there is a great amount of enthusiasm for bringing new life to the downtown. And that's the same enthusiasm that has turned a parking garage into something much greater, she said. 

"We're pretty creative and resourceful, as well as community-minded," Middleton said. "Most places, you build a parking garage and people park cars there. In Stanford, you build us a parking garage and we'll hold Halloween and Christmas parties, have auctions and art sales and park cars. 

"Talk about a two-fer. We got a parking garage and community center all in one." 

STANFORD - Stanford Main Street manager Mary Middleton believes the program has accomplished a lot during its 10 years of existence. She and members of the Main Street board have acquired hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money and planned and implemented scores of projects. 

But Middleton acknowledges that the program wouldn't have been nearly as successful in changing the face of the downtown had it not been for the cooperation and efforts of the proprietors of the city's oldest businesses and buildings. 

"Without the support and the work of some of the owners of our oldest businesses, the program wouldn't have been able to accomplish as much as it has," Middleton said. "We (program) set the stage; these longtime businesses set the pace." 

And, according to Middleton and city leaders, two of the most significant pacesetters have been Jesse Correll, chairman of the board of First Southern National Bank, one of downtown's largest businesses and occupant of a set of the city's oldest buildings, and Alfred Pence Sr. and Alfred Pence Jr., owners of a much smaller but just as historic business and building, Coleman's Drug Store. 

First Southern actually is a rambling group of old buildings that have been consolidated over the years into one large structure that pretty much occupies a whole block, said Correll. 

"Because the bank tends to be sprawling and have different levels and floors, visitors often have to be given directions out of the bank," he said with a laugh. "But before they finally are able to find their way out, they seem to be pretty impressed with what they have seen." 

What visitors as well as regular customers have been seeing is the product of a major restoration and rehabilitation project that has returned many of the exteriors and interiors of the building to their original 19th century grandeur. 

Not about living in the past 
Period furnishings also have enhanced the "new old look," Correll said. Both the interior and exterior restoration should be completed within the next few weeks, he said. 

"The different buildings are different ages with some having been built in the early 1800s and others on up in the century," he said. "We found a cornerstone to one of the buildings dating to the very early 1800s. Some buildings are newer, but all are pre-1900. 

"One of our restoration projects involved tearing out a dropped ceiling to find beautiful, ornate 10-foot ceilings in one large room, and ripping up the carpet to find gorgeous pine floors underneath. There is so much character in these old buildings, and it is wonderful to restore them and bring them back to life." But Correll stressed that his restoration is not about "living in the past." 

"Sure, our goal has been to return the buildings to their original style and character, but not just do it for looks, also for function," he said. "This is not a museum. It's still a bank." 

Correll has plans for other restoration and new construction projects downtown, including building an inn across Main Street at the site of the old St. Asaph Hotel and converting an old mill into some yet-to-be-decided function. 

In addition, First Southern has purchased several other Main Street properties and plans to use them for future expansion of the bank. 

In the meantime, the bank has been helping other local businesses undertake their own restoration projects. "We have financed several downtown revitalization projects," he said, including one of which he is particularly delighted. 

"Coleman's Drug Store is a downtown Stanford institution," he said. "After their restoration, it not only is great to look at, it's great to do business there and eat there. And it's definitely one of the coolest places to eat." 

Coleman's has been in business in Stanford since the mid to late 1800s, according to Alfred Pence Jr., who owns the business and building with his father, Alfred Pence Sr. The store has been in the Pence family since 1914; Alfred Sr., a pharmacist, joined in 1940, and Alfred Jr., also a pharmacist, came on board in 1969. 

The late-1800s building was restored about six years ago, becoming one of the first downtown businesses to undertake a restoration project, Pence said. And he believes the project was worth it. "The project involved putting two buildings together," he said. "Over the years, the building had been reduced to half of its original size, so with the restoration, it was returned to more of the size it had been." 

Improving business 
The drug store's space isn't the only thing that has grown, said Pence. "There's no doubt our business has increased," he said. "And there's no doubt the restoration helped us improve our business." 

Pence believes it also has helped that other downtown businesses have joined in the restoration, rehabilitation and new construction downtown. 

"When everybody does restoration and rehab and makes other improvements, everybody benefits," he said. "Businesses have improved their bottom lines, but businesses aren't the only ones to benefit. The whole town does. 

"We not only have the First Southern project, my business, other businesses that have done restoration, but we also have a new parking garage - something people laughed at first until they found it could be used for community events and other purposes than just a place for cars - plus additional parking behind my business and others, a beautiful courthouse and a new library in the works." 

Pence said the changes have been wonderful and turned downtown Stanford into a pretty, thriving town. "I still believe that the downtown is the heart of every small town and it gives the town its identity," he said. 

Correll agreed that Stanford's heart is pumping strong and its identity is positive, but he said there is more work to do. 

"We could use a few more retail shops, especially a good antique shop, and we also could focus a little more on the residential sector of our downtown," he said. 

"Most of the big, older homes on Main are selling in the neighborhood of $150,000 or so, and that would be a bargain for people looking to buy an old house at a low price and then invest in its restoration." But even if the downtown revitalization were to stop today, the Somerset native is happy with what his adopted hometown has accomplished so far. 

"We have made a lot of progress toward bringing this little town back to life, and, with some more work, I see more businesspeople and more homeowners and shoppers - everybody - coming back downtown," Correll said. 

And Correll is happy he decided to make downtown the home of First Southern. "We have banks not only in several small towns in central Kentucky but also in Lexington, and it might have been tempting to make Lexington our headquarters," he said. "But I like the lifestyle of a small town, and Stanford's lifestyle is becoming more and more enjoyable. 

"Besides, I have just a five-minute commute to work. I love being in a place where five cars at a light is considered a traffic jam."