Spring 1975

I lived in Memphis in the shadow of Graceland for 8 years.  Though we saw Priscilla, and Lisa Marie riding her horses and go-carts, and Vernon and many other family and friends, we never saw Elvis. 

During this intensely innocent age, I became fascinated with beavers.  The woods behind my home contained within it a creek that connected two lakes, and this environment was teeming with beavers and their unmistakable industry.  I marveled at one dam that was over 6 feet tall, and both lakes contained classic beaver lodges.

However, just as I never saw Elvis, I never saw a beaver.  Beavers are nocturnal, and truth be told, I did see a shadowy glimpse of several at night with my not-yet-diagnosed legally blind vision, including some gliding silently through the water;  silent, that is, until they smelled me with their little wet nose and slapped the water with their tail before diving to safety.  But never did I see a beaver in all its glory when the sun was up.

The day we drove to our new home in Huntsville in May of 1975, my luck changed dramatically.  As we entered the city, there, on the side of the road, I spotted a beaver in broad daylight.  My dad, surprisingly, careened wildly to a halt in the roadside gravel upon hearing my “beaver!” shriek.  Having read for years how slow and clumsy beavers were on land, I jumped out thinking that I might be able to capture this cute specimen.   However, the speed with which he or she returned to the creek from which it had come was astonishing.

Back in the car, with the family in high spirits, my father announced that Elvis was in town for a concert.  Ten minutes after the beaver episode, we pulled into the swanky new Huntsville Hilton.  Dad said that it was almost guaranteed that Elvis would be staying there, and we pulled into the back parking lot and came in by the dock.  There were some young ladies bouncing with joyful, nervous energy.  As I gathered in this interesting spectacle, Elvis in the flesh breezed by right in front of me, fully decked out in his classic late-period white jump suit, wearing sunglasses and a hazy smile.   I am still uncertain if the palpable energy that I felt was due to his charisma or the bouncing girls; I certainly felt something special.

Before I had even laid my head down to sleep in my new city, I had been close enough to touch Elvis, and almost close enough to touch a beaver.  I took these events as a sign, later proven correct, that life was going to be good in Huntsville, Alabama.

Fast forward to 2009

In our continued peeling of the onion at Lincoln Mills, we came across two rooms chocked full of Huntsville Industrial Associates’ business records.  HIA was the group of 35 business and government leaders who purchased the textile mills and converted them into the Huntsville Industrial Center.  In a text book case of business prowess, HIA plowed their not-insignificant profits derived from leasing the HIC Building to the likes of Brown Engineering, Chrysler, Boeing, and NASA into other Huntsville properties - including the conception and development of the Huntsville Hilton.   

So when Elvis finally laid his head down and drifted to sleep later that 1975 night, Lincoln Mills/the HIC Building had played a significant part, for it was rumored that Elvis would stay in no hotel but a Hilton.

The Heart of the Matter

 

Just as the redevelopment of Lincoln Mills features a wide range of residential, educational and commercial uses, it follows that the heart of the village, the Dye House Theatre, will feature diverse entertainment and inspiration. 

Concerts, movie screenings, plays, recitals, dances, parties, speeches and sermons will fill the weekly schedule. 

The Viridian Room, an extraordinary loft connected to the theatre, will provide entertainers with a cozy pre- and post- event refuge. 

Unique and affordable, the Dye House Theatre opens December-2009, and is accepting bookings now. 

Please contact us at:

dyehouse@lincoln-mills.com 

256-319-5638.

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

The clash of the ironclads CSS Virginia and USS Monitor

In the grotesquely destructive logic of war, the USS Merrimack was scuttled (to purposely sink a ship by opening holes in its bottom) by the US Navy off the Virginia Peninsula when it appeared that it would fall into the hands of the Confederacy.

In an amazing example of “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle”, the Confederacy raised the wooden ship, and then proceeded to “reduce” the wooden frigate to the waterline. They then built a wood and iron angled deck from “recycled” iron that was melted, cast and rolled at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond into 4 layers of 2” thick, 8” wide protective plates.

The “reuse” of the combination of the scuttled ship and the recycled iron in the form of the newly-christened CSS Virginia resulted in a devastating attack on the US Navy’s wooden blockading squadron off of Newport News, Virginia. For one day, because of one ship, the Confederate Navy was the most powerful navy on the planet.

The next day, March 9, 1862, the USS Monitor arrived on the scene and battled the CSS Virginia to a brutal draw, and the age of naval warfare had entered a new, highly-lethal phase.

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle is not just a slogan at Lincoln Mills. For instance, the prison-inspired fencing is being reduced to the supporting posts, which are then reused, in conjunction with reused metal panels being taken off of the mill windows, in a new configuration that will feature an array of fruit trees and shrubs from Meridian Street to the railroad tracks.

The chain link fence is being reused at a youth baseball practice field.

From Outer Space to the Third Space

I am always amazed at the ebb and flow, the waxing and waning, of real estate. How a specific piece of land and/or buildings can evolve, at times desirable and prosperous, other times less so. This process has certainly accelerated in the past 200 years in America given the onslaught of urbanization and the built environment. For instance, the site that is now graced by Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta has been, during the past 180 years:

· Cherokee Indian hunting grounds

· The innermost line of Confederate trenches defending Atlanta during the Civil War

· An animal hide tanning complex

· Industrial factories and warehouses

· Club Rio, an icehouse converted to a debaucherous dance venue, and the initial stop on Rob Lowe’s fall from grace while visiting Atlanta during the 1988 Democratic Convention

Lincoln Mills, after an impressive run as a textile mill, metamorphosed into the birthplace in Huntsville of the space and rocket industry. As the companies and entities that led and serviced the moon missions moved to Marshall Space Flight Center and the new technology park on the western edge of the city, the Huntsville Industrial Center labored on, with an evolving and eclectic mix of tenants with a new unifying theme – low-cost overhead.

Some of the office and laboratory space that was built during the moon mission phase was built with steel walls, doors and hardware, and remains in completely serviceable shape. Combined with the concrete and steel floors, walls, ceilings and support columns, if ever there was space that could be salvaged and repurposed, this hallowed ground is it.

A unifying theme for a portion of this historic site seems to be “The Third Space.” Lincoln Mills will have all of the “Three Spaces”:

1. The “First Space” – Home

Residential Lofts of various sizes, configurations and prices will be a key element of Lincoln Mills.

2. The “Second Space” – Work

Lincoln Mills will house offices, a green laundry, restaurants, a school (certainly considered work by the students), an organic farm and farmers market, an iron workshop, Ozone Joe’s, and on and on.

3. The “Third Space” – space that is neither work nor home, yet having features of both. Starbucks was born of the Third Space.

Lincoln Mills will offer affordable offices with “easy in-easy out” leases, manufacturing space, artist lofts and galleries, a eco-friendly shared paint booth, an independent theater, conference space, collaboration and networking spaces, and an Eco-tel, all synergistically working to provide a rich foundation for the Third Space.

Serendipitously and not surprisingly, our vision for Lincoln Mills and its future is shared as a general guiding concept by others in Huntsville. These like-minded people are finding each other, and will perhaps physically come together permanently in one place at Lincoln Mills - the Three Spaces in one place.

From Horrific to Terrific

Very few human activities bring more fulfillment than transforming a building from a dirty, dangerous, underutilized condition into something useful. And this fulfillment extends to the entire community, not just the individuals undertaking the project, for the community can patronize and enjoy the revitalized building.

Picture this: A two-story restaurant, with an immediately adjacent kitchen, both with 16’ ceilings. The second floor of the restaurant, as well as the adjoining roof tops, generate substantial produce, herbs and sprouts utilized by the restaurant.

The commercial kitchen has two sides, one for the restaurant, and one that can be rented by the hour. An adjoining event facility provides ample opportunity for small, medium and large catering opportunities.

Rather than commuting in, the owner/operator and most of the employees can live within walking distance of the site.

If you, or someone you know, find this picture appealing, please inquire about the opportunity represented by the Dye House Diner.