Thursday, February 23, 2017

Renovation of 1775/1779 Madison

After Bill and Carol Mathis completed the renovations of the Biltmore and the McAlpin across the street, they started on the building next door. Although I have located a Sanborn Insurance map that identified its name as "The Madison" (see below). I will call it by its current, be in banal, name: 1775/1779 Madison.


Here's a 1994 photo of my building in the foreground and 1775/1779 Madison in the background.

Fast forward to more recent times and you will find the maroon awnings over the two front doors have (finally) been removed.

The building has two entrances, one marked as "1775" and the other as "1779." Here is a "before" photo of the latter.


When the "1779" was removed, it revealed that both buildings were at one point known as 1775 (despite the Sanborn Insurance map above to the contrary). Presumably, Units 1-8 were accessible from the western entrance and Units 9-16 were accessible from the eastern entrance.
Here's the fix: the numbers and letters were given a paint job and the "5" was converted to a "9."
The eastern entrance got to stay the same.
This view of the western facade of the building shows one of the more expensive parts of the renovation: the introduction of central heat and air to all of the units.



View from my balcony showing the small beds in the front being replaced. One of my favorite aspects of 1775/1779 Madison is its (extreme) proximity to the street.




Saturday, November 12, 2016

Christmas, 2014 and 2015

As we approach the holiday season of 2016, I thought it was high time to look back at Calvin Farrar's last two Christmas decorations at the Bar-B-Q Shop. The last time I covered his annual window decorations was in 2013.


2014


















2015









Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Shotgunning a Beer

What's up?

Wanna shotgun a beer?

OK, but can you help me with that?

Ok...here's how it goes...

...and when you crack it open...
...

OK, ready?

Let's first take a selfie...



Whoa.

And there it is.

Bud Light will make you dance.


Well, so long.


Saturday, April 23, 2016

St. Jude Half Marathon, 2015


Late last year, for the first time since I moved to the street in 2006, the St. Jude Memphis Marathon was routed down Madison Ave. Here's what the race looked like from my balcony.

Here's the first sign that someone's coming.

First place runner to pass by, who actually ended up winning the half marathon, Brandon Dworak.

As expected, most of the front runners were actually competing in the half marathon. Here is second place finisher in that race, Oliver Lange.  Right behind him is Mark Cole, who placed third.

Robert Rose finished fourth in the half marathon.

My neighbors are getting into it, too.

Fifth place by my place also finished fifth in the half: Rob Ellis.

Jim Brown, sixth.

Colton Wooldridge finished seventh.

At this point, the positions became a little more complicated (ie, they starting passing each other past my house!). Here is Nicholas Pinarski, who came in tenth in the half marathon. Right behind him is the first runner by my place who was competing in the full marathon, Adam Higham, who ended up coming in seventh in that race.

Jacob Walker, eighth place in the half.

Number 3568 on the left is Lucas Sullivan, who came in second in the full marathon.  On the right is Jay McCurdy, who placed 15th in the full marathon.

At this point, the runners come in larger groups...





Here's a shot looking down Madison.

In total, 10,700 runners placed in the full and half marathons in 2015. Here is a complete list of the results.