Renovating a historic main street building in the heart of Appalachia is not for the weak of heart (or faith). You never know what you are going to find or what you have to do to bring the building up to today's building codes and regulations. The good news is that buildings constructed 100 years ago like ours were built to last and built with character. Real estate developers and suppliers today try just about anything to imitate the look and feel of historic buildings. Although, they sometimes come close, they never can quite get it right. Some people in Harlan County might say the same thing about people who try to imitate their music, art, or way of life.
In this update, we'll show you how we are taking historic features of the building and incorporating them into the overall design, while making sure everything meets Kentucky's building codes. We also share some updates about next steps in the construction.
Structural Work 85% Complete
Our hard-working Harlan County crew continues to make great progress on replacing the the rotted wood that once threatened to topple over the building. They have moved up to the third floor replacing floors, joists, and beams. The structural work is about 85% complete and then we get a new roof in May. Below you can see a picture of the newly installed support on the second floor. This space will very likely be used for expanded seating, private events, and community gatherings.
Ceilings of the Past
Dropped ceilings and carpeting ruined just about everything good about looking up and down in a building. The artistry of custom tin ceilings and craftsmanship of hardwood floors in historic buildings is almost impossible to recreate. And when you learn more about the history of tin ceilings, you'll have an even greater appreciation. Wikipedia has a great overview.
The Harlan County Beer Building once had an incredibly intricate tin ceiling. But over years of neglect and roof leaks much of it was damaged or destroyed. Fortunately, we were able to preserve some sections of what remained. In the past few weeks, we've been carefully taking down the intact ceiling tile to reuse in our overall design.
Taking down the tile is also the first step in getting the building up to fire code. We need to install a two-hour fire barrier between the first and second floor. Unfortunately, that's hard to accomplish with just tin ceiling, especially when we only have remnants of what once was. So, we first have to install two layers of 5/8 inch drywall Type X on the ceiling. You can see the progress we've made below in removing the tile to expose the first floor ceiling joists.
The good news is that we were able to salvage a number of the original ceiling tiles and molding. Unfortunately, it's not enough to recover the entire ceiling. But, we are going to find some strategic places to reinstall the tiles through the building. Our thoughts are above the bar and perhaps main seating area. Others have suggested in the bathrooms or above the brewery system. What do you think? Below is a nice stack of reclaimed tiles to help you make a decision.
The really neat thing about the old tin ceiling is just how custom each tile was in the building. We found this corner piece that looks exactly like a spade in a deck of cards.
It's an inspiring find, especially since we made our own custom Harlan County Beer Company deck of cards with artwork by the one-and-only Danny Seim. See any similarities between the ceiling tile and Ace of Spades below? If you're interested in the deck of cards you can buy a pack here. For every deck sold $1 goes to support Higher Ground community theater in Harlan, which just premiered its newest production on Friday.
Progress Continues Daily
We hope you enjoyed our latest update. We are working hard everyday of the week on getting the building renovated and ready. Our next update will include a sample of what the walls will look like and hopefully a picture of the building all cleaned out and ready for new construction. As you can see, our Wefunder campaign continues to grow with 258 investors and over $192,000. We are getting very close to our goal of $250,000 and will no doubt hit it by our deadline of August. So, if you are still on the fence, now is the time to jump in. We'll be having some in-person and virtual investors' forums in early May to answer any questions. Thank you for following and be sure to say Thank you to Harlan County today!