The circa 1894 Covington Brothers Wholesale Grocery Building in Paducah, Kentucky, at the corner of Jefferson and North Third Streets, is facing a likely emergency demolition. Is there anyone in Paducah who could go take some photographs of all elevations of the building for me before its destruction? The three story brick building, home to the grocery wholesale business for over 30 years, is a victim of deferred maintenance, and the roof has collapsed.
The Covington Bros. Grocery Building. Photograph shared on Facebook by Owen Kim Blaisdell, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10230637311622022&set=g.221875714525096
While the building is listed in a National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)-listed historic district, the advantages afforded by that designation don’t do any good unless an owner wants to preserve and maintain a historic building.
Section of the 1897 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Paducah, showing the building.
And unfortunately for my purposes, the existing photographs of the building from 1985 are not great, and I’m not going to be in Paducah anytime soon to photograph the building myself. If you can take some photos, please comment or email gardens2gables@gmail.com.
That infuriates me! There is a great ghost sign on the south face of this building that was exposed when the adjacent Ethan Allen building was demolished. It is something about Tarbell Honey, maybe??? Jeff Canter at PFGW Archirltects can take some photos. I’ll text him and send him this article.
Thank you Randy!