Mark sent in this photo of a recently pressure-washed 320 Church Street that reveals elements of a painted sign on the exterior.
Anyone recall what used to be housed in this building back at the far end of the Church Street surface parking lot?
UPDATE: here’s a picture of the rear entrance of the Belk-Gallant circa 1956 courtesy of Dennis at Next Stop…Decatur!
The sign says Belk Gallant. That WHOLE building used to be the Belks – had 3 entrances: This one on Church Street, one on Sycamore (now the MARTA plaza, about where Dancer’s Core is, I think), and one on N. McDonough (now Eddie’s Attic et al.). I still miss that Belks! (It is easy to see the 3 parts of the building in an overhead view on Google maps.)
That used to be the rear entrance to the old Belk-Gallant department store. If you look at the photo closely you can see the words “Belk Gallant” painted above the windows.
I wish the owners of the parking lot in front of this would develop their property. I’m sure they are killing it with their parking lot, but from a street scape perspective – that gap needs to be filled in. Sooner or later it will make more sense to build a building rather than simply park cars there. That is what real estate in downtowns are for – buildings. So there should be one there.
My interim dream would be for them to give up the ten or so spaces that line the sidewalk and replace them with two or three Airstream trailers serving walk-up food. That would provide continuous pedestrian value and eye-candy from Leon’s all the way down to Sapori di Napoli.
Sort of like what they’ve done along 30-A in Seaside. Like any business, some won’t make it, but the cost of entry would be way lower. It can be like incubator space for restaurants, though “incubator” is probably a poor word when talking about food.
that is an excellent idea! make it so!
+100. Brilliant!
I recall there being an Airstream set up next to Victory for about a week earlier this year. It was some kind of boutique shop though.
Airstream food stands would be a great addition to the ‘hood.
I don’t think many of the restaurateurs in Decatur would like the idea of food trucks on the street.
I was thinking more of a semi-permanent install of Airstreams, owned not by any individual food business but by the property owner or someone leasing the spaces and managing the trailers. The food businesses would be tenants, just as other restaurants typically are, in a fixed location and renting space just as restaurants do. They would just be renting a lot less of it. That’s where the lower/incubator cost would materialize.
I would be surprised to find opposition to that, except maybe from people who are against competition in general.
Forgot to mention – Google “Belk-Gallant Building Today and in 1956” for a picture of the building via NextStopDecatur
Dennis was kind enough to send it along to me, so you can now see it in the original post above as well.
Agree on the general sentiments on the long-term direction for this parking lot, but in the meantime how hard would it be to foment enthusiasm to further uncover and/or restore the Belk sign here?Would tie in nicely to all of the recovered painted brick signs on the square.
Well – they are restoring the original facade on the front for the building for the Waffle House that is going under Eddie’s. (Is that still happening?) So maybe they are restoring the back facade as well.
Good , old fashioned Lead Based Paint !
“it’s cheaper to keep her…”
Can someone find out from the DDA what the current status of the “Belk Building property master plan” is as mentioned in their online document from January 2013 at http://www.decaturga.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=4208? It mentions including the parking lot as part of the plan.
You could ask the DDA directly. Contact Linda Harris.
Does anyone remember the Ladies Dress Shop that was near by in the square.
As a child (early 1960’s) I remember it was a specialty shop with lots of ladies
hats?
Wonder how they dealt with all the lead paint they blasted doff that building.
Speaking of pressure washing… [awful segue bonus achieved]
Anyone got recommendations for a good car detailing business? I’ve been neglecting my ride and, while it’s nothing fancy, deserves more than a jaunt through a regular car wash.
Decatur Pure
Didn’t realize they did that. Awesome, thanks.
My one experience was that the quality of the detail was excellent. But it did take all day. Just FYI for planning purposes. I would establish a pick-up time ahead of time.
My 78-year-old mother offered up this gem when she saw these pictures: “When I shopped once in that Belks there was a ‘sale’ sign on a counter of merchandise…can’t remember what it was. But, there were no ‘sale’ prices, so I asked a clerk about it and she replied that the sign meant that the things were for ‘sale’….Okay, but, there were no bargains under that sign.”
The former Belk building is going to be an office building for attorney’s is what I have heard. I own Raging Burrito & Taco so I have been trying to find out more details of when they will open. The parking lot manager told me it will open around December and use 70 of the 90 parking spaces monday through friday from 8 until 6.