The Montgomery Building

[Spartan]

Wow, the financing model has really changed!

[westsider28]

38 minutes ago, Spartan said:

Wow, the financing model has really changed!

Yeah, it seems like that model (local public stock) was used quite frequently in the past.  As I recall, it was how the Cleveland Hotel was financed as well.

Oh and here's an view of the storefront progress from this weekend:

[westsider28]

Here are a few photos from Friday.  The arches over the entrances are up.  The panels with the vase design on the 4th floor and the decorative panels between the 3rd floor windows are up on the Saint John side.  Looking good.

[westsider28]

Here's a better photo of the aforementioned newly added detailed panels (3rd & 4th floors).  You can also see how the bottom of the bay windows is actually cast stone, not metal.  I didn't realize that when the whole building was painted white (but it's noticeable in several historic photos).

[westsider28]

The front bay windows are beginning to be painted the dark green color.

[westsider28]

Most of the scaffolding is down now (though painting of the front bay windows hasn't yet been completed).  Looks like major ground floor / storefront work is beginning.

[Spartan]

Beautiful. Almost brings a tear to my eye.

[westsider28]

The construction elevator has come down on the north side, so the facade is now going up there.  Also, apartment interiors are going in (pic from MB Facebook page).  They mentioned in that post that rents will start at $900/month.  And finally, a bonus detail shot. 

EDIT: added another interior photo from the MB Instagram account.  It's a south facing unit on the ninth floor (see bay window & view).

Edited August 23, 2018 by westsider28
Added another interior photo

[Sparkleman]

A buddy of mine was in town last week and knows the money men for this project. He was able to secure us a tour of the building with one of Harper's project managers. I must say they are doing a heck of a job and they plan on being done on schedule (late September/October). They are keeping it as close to original as possible including reworking the weights and pulley rope style windows that you see in older homes in Converse or Hampton Heights. They are using new split HVAC air systems to eliminate the need for air ducting. Floors 4-9 will all have the same layout with 2 BR units on each end then a couple of 3 BR and then all the 1 BR's are in the middle.

We also got to go in the theater and check it out although it will not be ready anytime soon as the money to renovate it is coming from another set of sources. It was not in as bad of shape as I would have thought and still has some cool features like a lot of the original painting. All in all a very good experience and this building with be a great show piece for Spartanburg

[Spartan]

Fantastic. I love the detailing of that building.

[Sparkleman]

That last picture I posted (in the last post) is of the ceiling of the theater. The detailing is incredible.

The manager said that under the theater was an old boiler room with a coal pit that ran adjacent to it. He said there was a small room with a cot in it and bathroom as well for the guy that tended to the boiler. The manager said he was down there for 30 minutes one day and was coughing up/sneezing black coal dust for several days. Can you imagine such a horrible job? He said the coat pit still had a few tons of coal in it. It has been removed thankfully and the whole area has been capped off.

Lots of old metal still remains in the building from ornate hand rails in the theater to many of the original radiators that provided heat. They chose to clean and keep it all but many of the radiators will be closed off with vents. Wherever there is original copper, thye have chosen to paint it as to disguise it so it doesn't get stolen. The theater had 3 decks to it. The main, the balcony, and a basement entrance. It was really cool and will be pretty awesome when complete.

The last picture where that ladder is leaning against the wall was the actual end of the tower. Where you see those lights now there used to be sky lights and you could look up and see the top of the building. This hallway/section separated the tower from the theater as well as the 1st floor retail. The developers chose to pass on the sky lights and instead go with high def lighting and marble ceiling. 

Lastly when built in 1923 there was only one other building like it in the US and that was a sister building in NYC. It is still standing and I will see if I can find a photo of it. There was no other building this advanced when originally built. High marks for the Burg here.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Sparkleman

[westsider28]

9 hours ago, Sparkleman said:

The last picture where that ladder is leaning against the wall was the actual end of the tower. Where you see those lights now there used to be sky lights and you could look up and see the top of the building. This hallway/section separated the tower from the theater as well as the 1st floor retail. The developers chose to pass on the sky lights and instead go with high def lighting and marble ceiling. 

Lastly when built in 1923 there was only one other building like it in the US and that was a sister building in NYC. It is still standing and I will see if I can find a photo of it. There was no other building this advanced when originally built. High marks for the Burg here.

It's a shame they didn't decide to reopen the skylights.  That would have been unique and stunning.  Sort of Grove Arcade-ish.  But I presume they needed the extra square footage on the office floor above to make the numbers work.

They posted a photo of that NYC building on their Instagram page a while ago.  Here's a link.  It's at 219 W 40th Street (near the NY Times HQ) and home to the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.  The building is certainly similar, but I think we got the better architecture.

Anyway, thanks for the great photos!  Looks like they've made a lot of progress on the ground floor hallway lately.  I love the gold capital.  The place will look amazing when finished.  Can't wait!

[Spartan]

Now that's a fun fact! We definitely got the better building. Plus, the one in NYC is a drop in the bucket compared to everything around it. Ours is a centerpiece.

[Sparkleman]

Here are a few pics of the theater. The first one is a picture of a painting showing what it looked like when newer. The second is that of a box seat on the side, and the third is looking back into the balcony area. Nothing amazing but just some shots that not everyone gets to see.

I sat down with my Mom and Dad last night as they wanted to see the 50+ pics I took of the MB during that tour and they were talking about it like they were in there yesterday. I didn’t know that they both had actually worked in there sending out invoices for a local peach broker that had his offices in there back in the 50’s. They knew all about Vannerson Optical (still stenciled on original glass inside that they are keeping intact) as well as a sandwich shop and other things that happened there. Pretty cool to listen to what they knew. They also mentioned that Elvis played there way back when but they were unable to get tickets to go.

[roads-scholar]

26 minutes ago, Sparkleman said:

Here are a few pics of the theater. The first one is a picture of a painting showing what it looked like when newer. The second is that of a box seat on the side, and the third is looking back into the balcony area. Nothing amazing but just some shots that not everyone gets to see.

I sat down with my Mom and Dad last night as they wanted to see the 50+ pics I took of the MB during that tour and they were talking about it like they were in there yesterday. I didn’t know that they both had actually worked in there sending out invoices for a local peach broker that had his offices in there back in the 50’s. They knew all about Vannerson Optical (still stenciled on original glass inside that they are keeping intact) as well as a sandwich shop and other things that happened there. Pretty cool to listen to what they knew. They also mentioned that Elvis played there way back when but they were unable to get tickets to go.

Your pics are great - thank you for sharing!

Curiously, I've never set foot in the Montgomery Building save for one movie back in the early 70's.  I recall the movie played on a Sunday afternoon and the building was silent as every office was closed.  The theater seemed impressive to a naive youngster back then.

Edited August 29, 2018 by roads-scholar
edit

[westsider28]

Here are some updates.  Narrow basement windows are being installed under the storefront windows along St John Street.  Very interesting, because I'm not sure that the building originally had these.  Also the St John sidewalk is paved.

Most of the sidewalk along Church Street has also been paved.  I would guess it's about 11 feet wide?  I think they found a bit of extra width toward Central Methodist (it used to narrow noticeably).

And here's a photo of interior storefront work.

[Spartan]

Are they going to add tree wells or something to that sidewalk? I forget. It's as shame that cant make the sidewalk wider than that, even though I know it's wider than it was.

[westsider28]

16 hours ago, Spartan said:

Are they going to add tree wells or something to that sidewalk? I forget. It's as shame that cant make the sidewalk wider than that, even though I know it's wider than it was.

An early site plan (below) showed trees, but it certainly looks like that's been changed.  I can understand wanting every inch of sidewalk for pedestrians, but trees would provide a buffer from traffic.  There's also a possibility that SCDOT could've nixed the trees.  I do hope there will be more "sidewalk furniture" installed later (planters, etc).

[Spartan]

99% of the time I would agree with you, but IF (andf that's a big IF) SCDOT lets them plan trees, the odds are that they would be small maturing trees like Crape Myrtles, and not provide3 any real protection from traffic and minimal shade. Id rather see them do something else to slow traffic on Church Street and have a wider sidewalk through there.

... Or ideally, remove a lane on church street so we can have real tress AND a wide sidewalk (and let traffic sort itself out)!

[Sparkleman]

In my opinion, Church St is much like Academy St in Greenville in that it handles a great deal of traffic. Removing a lane to it would back traffic up forever in both directions as you already have multiple traffic lights in place. I am all for anything that helps downtown but you also need to be able to get around conveniently. You can see this clearly on St John St at rush hour or lunch where part of a lane has been closed due to MB construction. Traffic is backed up to Barnet Park and beyond at these times. It would suck were that permanent.

[roads-scholar]

1 hour ago, Sparkleman said:

In my opinion, Church St is much like Academy St in Greenville in that it handles a great deal of traffic. Removing a lane to it would back traffic up forever in both directions as you already have multiple traffic lights in place. I am all for anything that helps downtown but you also need to be able to get around conveniently. You can see this clearly on St John St at rush hour or lunch where part of a lane has been closed due to MB construction. Traffic is backed up to Barnet Park and beyond at these times. It would suck were that permanent.

It would be nice if Church Street (US-221) thru traffic could bypass downtown somehow then Church could be narrowed.  Pine to Henry and vice versa makes sense to me. 

Thoughts?

[Spartan]

All you would really need to do is restrict left turns on Church through downtown (DMA to Henry) and narrow the lanes. You could then remove the center turn lane and the extra space from the narrow lanes and probably have 12-15ft of space that you could allocate for whatever you want - perhaps bike lanes or wider sidewalks. There aren't that many businesses with driveways through there, and the only time traffic is actually heavy enough to warrant the left turn lanes is during rush hour (which isn't that long in Spartanburg), so you could open up left turn lanes during off-peak hours, which is most of the day.

[roads-scholar]

On 9/13/2018 at 4:31 PM, Spartan said:

All you would really need to do is restrict left turns on Church through downtown (DMA to Henry) and narrow the lanes. You could then remove the center turn lane and the extra space from the narrow lanes and probably have 12-15ft of space that you could allocate for whatever you want - perhaps bike lanes or wider sidewalks. There aren't that many businesses with driveways through there, and the only time traffic is actually heavy enough to warrant the left turn lanes is during rush hour (which isn't that long in Spartanburg), so you could open up left turn lanes during off-peak hours, which is most of the day.

Sounds like a good plan to me.  But what will SCDOT say?

[Spartan]

They'd probably say, "No" or "Maybe we'll think about it if you (the City) pay for a study to prove its viable, and then we'll politely decline later on."

[westsider28]

Lots of glass going in last week.  Storefront and second-floor glass on Church Street, as well as storefront glass on St John (and 2nd-floor window frames).  Also some black (marble?) going in beneath the storefront windows.