Les Jones

East Tennessee > Downtown Maryville Re-development

The other day Melissa and I were driving through downtown Maryville and I noticed Martin's barber shop on Harper had closed. According to the MAD Times, Leanne Moe bought the building for an art studio.

WATE has a look at changes in the downtown, from the Harper Street Lofts to the pedestrian bridge across the Greenbelt Park connecting downtown to the library. "Other projects including the new outdoor plaza and a parking garage, will be done within two years."

The MAD Times has more downtown plans, both public and private. There'll be redevelopment of the J&K feed store and grocery store, demolition of the Church Avenue Professional Building by Thanksgiving, replacement of the Broadway viaduct in 2006, plans for a farmer's market in the spring of 2006, and re-development of the pink stucco building downtown.

It's especially good to see someone doing something with the J&K building. The upstairs of the J&K has been idle for three decades. During the '90s the downstairs feedstore was a cool coffee shop and club called Jazzberry General

Below is that pink stucco building. It's getting a new brick facade and windows. Here's hoping someone will rehab the building next to it and restore the lower half to match the original upper half. The mismatch is the result of Maryville's disastrous "Now Town" project in the early '70s. As part of the supposed revitalization, a plastic and metal awning was attached to all of the downtown buildings on Broadway, cutting the building architectures in half, and encouraging this sort of thing.