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.