I just got a notification from the Alabama Historical Commission that they reviewed and processed our application for Historic Preservation Certification. Now they send it to Washington for the National Park Service to review and hopefully grant Certification!
In a bit of embarrassing news (cause I know y'all love that) it turns out that the first owners of the building were not the Counts Brothers. The first owners were named Green and Bragan. We had to submit the paperwork as The Green-Bragan Building, so just disregard the name of this site. I'm sure everyone will still call it Storkland anyway, or Wadeland as one of my friends put it.
The National Park Service, which oversees the Historic Renovation Tax Credit process, wants us to keep as many of the original windows as possible. The downside is that they are not very energy efficient, and don't open. The upside is that the glass is old and wavy and lots of fun.
I went to the library archives hoping to figure out which furniture company used the "Furniture Co." sign that I found in the coal chute. There were only two pictures available and neither shows that particular sign, so it remains a mystery. On the bright side I found two pictures to share.
During the 1930s the Counts Bros. Building housed the Maxwell-Crow Furniture Company and the Counts Brothers Sewing Machine Company. Other than signage the building looks almost the same. The only structural difference is the entrance on the Maxwell side, which is now more narrow. In the Counts Bros. picture you can see the building on the west that is now Blair Furniture and Storkland. In the Maxwell picture you can see the building that originally stood to the east, which burned down and is now a parking lot.
When I purchased the building we found an old Counts Bros. sign in the upstairs storage area; I've included some pictures below. Interestingly it is not the same sign that is in the historic picture. Counts Bros. was there for 20 years, so the sign must have either been repainted or replaced. I had hoped to be able to restore this sign and put it out front, but it is too damaged and fragile. Instead I am going to try to preserve as much as possible and hang it in my residence.
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