Part of the City's Past
Behind the faded facades -- which have undergone various facelifts over the decades -- and the large banner that denotes that they are now under city ownership, there are cavernous spaces waiting to be brought back to life.
These buildings, 61 and 67 Dexter Ave., date to 1850, a time of robust expansion and wealth in Montgomery.
They were at the center of Montgomery life back then, said Mary Ann Neeley, a noted local historian. Neeley is in the process of unearthing the details of these buildings' early years.
>"This was the place to be" at the height of antebellum life, Neeley said.
Now, 160 years later, there is renewed interest in this area. The city purchased about a dozen properties here for $3.2 million and has been selling them at a discount as a way of extending an economic development incentive to developers.
No one has committed to purchasing these two buildings, but a group of preservationists, including Neeley, is keenly interested in documenting their historical details.
This group feels that even if developers can't, or won't, retain any of the histories of these buildings, it is important to at least have them recorded.
When fall rolls around, the Capital City is alive with more events than you can imagine, providing residents and visitors with a host of fun things to do.
Traditionally a time to support Montgomery AIDS Outreach, October was filled with a variety of events hosted to support "Dining with Friends," generally MAO's largest annual fundraiser. In its seventh year, more than $15,000 was raised recently as donors arrived to enjoy more than 10 events held across the city and beyond.
By Alvin Benn • Special to the Advertiser • November 14, 2010
They may not have huge inventories or lots of sales clerks, but merchants in the Mulberry District showed Saturday that a little TLC will go a long way in landing a sale.
Halos didn't hurt, either, as Wendy Guglielmino and Karen Hoffman found out at In The Mood, a curio shop with a wide variety of gift ideas for the holidays.
"We don't want what everybody else wants, like at the mall," said Guglielmino.
The sounds of a mellow saxophone filled the air as early arrivals to "Midtown Gets Down in the Big Easy" were greeted at the A&P Lofts on Cloverdale Road recently. Sam Williams bellowed the jazz notes from the balcony overlooking the venue's courtyard, beckoning patrons to "get down" and enjoy every aspect of the New Orleans-inspired evening that had been created especially for them and the Friday night benefit they had come to support.