Downtown Brookhaven

The downtown Brookhaven walking tour / Tour of Homes, with food and live music will be on December 6, 2008 from 4:00pm to 8:00pm. Curious about the what those newly renovated Loft apartments and businesses look like from the inside? Come see for yourself! Music students from the Mississippi School of the arts will be performing in locations on the tour. Tickets available at the Brookhaven Chamber of Commerce.
Phone:
(800) 613-4667
Email:
info@brookhavenchamber.com

For those out of town viewers that have not seen the renewed Haven theater, here are a few photos!

Attractive “period” lighting is now going up downtown. I like it. The area along Railroad ave side of the parking lots looks very nice at this point.

Graffitti is showing up with increasing frequency in Brookhaven’s alleys. Though some pretty impressive work is on rail cars passing through Brookhaven, this stuff falls short of the mark. The obscenity additions to the work of previous artists point to “artists” in their early teen years. Suggestion to parents and school administrators: look for black and pink painted fingers. Though most of this work showed the mechanical skill of someone who has taken an art class, it was certainly not good enough to justify a conclusion that this was the work of students at the school across the street. On the bright side, so far the damage is to alley facing property, not that makes it any less expensive for the building owner to remove.

The second weekly downtown farmer’s market looks like a success. This Friday morning market is becoming quite a social event, too. Produce was abundant, quality high, and prices were reported to be very reasonable.

The Brookhaven Downtown Association is now a reality. Over 30 businesses and individuals have joined and the association is ready to begin working on it’s first project!

(See the links on the sidebar to the right)

If you live in the central Brookhaven area or have a business downtown, join! It is free.

Today, the Lincoln County Master Gardeners put a on a very successful and fun event in the “Spring Gardening Extravaganza”, right here in downtown Brookhaven. I perused the goods and savored the ‘burgers, listened to the brass band, but missed the seminars. Homer Richardson tells me that this year’s Extravaganza was even more successful than last year, needing space all the way up the train depot. You can find out more about the event and LCMG here. A few photos. As always, click on the photo for the larger image.

When I saw the for sale sign on the Wand’s Seed Store building a few weeks ago, I was taken back to Easter time as a child when the window was filled with brightly-dyed little chicks. The thought made me a bit sad and anxious for what would be moving into the spot. Thankfully, the space was too big for another check-cashing company. I shuttered at the thought that a real estate or insurance office would take up the space and turn it into yet another sheet rocked and dropped ceiling eyesore. I hoped for maybe a nice sandwich place that had big ice teas and old whirring ceiling fans, but mostly kept the interior unchanged. I cannot tell you how delighted I was with how the building was renovated for Billy Martin’s Antiques. It is really fantastic how the best features of the building, like that wonderful open ceiling, were maintained. The thoughtful use of a white rubber roof for energy efficiency and the many added touches and tasteful color scheme is fine. Admittedly, I have yet to enter the door, i am afraid I may walk out with something, and it looks like it would be expensive.

Click on the images to enlarge, but the photos do not do justice to this renovation. Well worth a walk-by at night, too!

Most of know that the ceiling fan was the preferred cooling method after electricity, but before air-conditioning came to town. Even today, fans provide some energy savings in air-conditioned buildings. It is a bit off-subject but after quite a search I found information from EnergyStar.gov listing the most energy efficient ceiling fans, a spreadsheet sorted on low speed efficiency rating is here. Surprising that one model stands out from the rest.

Information about energy use and historic buildings from the National Parks Service. I believe our southern latitudes, and reduced heating needs, make an excellent example of this:

Older buildings were found to use less energy for heating and cooling and hence probably require fewer weatherization improvements. They use less energy because they were built with a well-developed sense of physical comfort and because they maximized the natural sources of heating, lighting and ventilation. The historic building owner should understand these inherent energy-saving qualities.

The most obvious (and almost universal) inherent energy saving characteristic was the use of operable windows to provide natural ventilation and light. In addition, historic commercial and public buildings often include interior light/ventilation courts, rooftop ventilators, clerestories or skylights. These features provide energy efficient fresh air and light, assuring that energy consuming mechanical devices may be needed only to supplement the natural energy sources. Any time the mechanical heating and air conditioning equipment can be turned off and the windows opened, energy will be saved.

The full brief on this subject is here