KATIE BRANDENBURG
The Independent
CATLETTSBURG —
Some Catlettsburg residents hope to start a fine arts center and a restoration movement within the city in one stroke.
Fine arts agent Molly Maynard presented a proposal to purchase the old Freedman’s Department Store and turn it into the Fine Arts Center of Boyd County at a special meeting of the Boyd County Extension Service Board of Directors.
The board voted to pass the proposal on to its facilities committee, the next hurdle it must pass on the way to final approval.
The store, in the 200 block of Division Street in Catlettsburg, is unoccupied and is owned by the Catlettsburg Volunteer Fire Department, Maynard said.
The department was only interested in selling the building if it will be used for community and economic development, she said. The asking price for the three-building structure and parking lot is $40,000.
Maynard’s goals for the building include creating an art gallery, studio classrooms and practice rooms, performance space, office space and a coffee shop.
The space could be cleared out using the bare bricks and old tin ceiling tile already in the building to make a gallery space, she said. Practice room’s would fill a need for children in the area and a coffee shop would help bring in money to support the center.
The project would also provide needed office and storage space for the extension, Maynard said.
She said she would eventually like to incorporate a stage area and artist living quarters into the space.
She said cooperation from the community, including Catlettsburg Main Street and the Catlettsburg Leadership Community Development Club, is essential to the project.
“The people who live in Catlettsburg have such a strong, strong sense of pride in where they’re from, and they are ready to embrace change,” she said. “They are ready to make a difference, and I just find that so admirable.”
Frank Branham, director of Catlettsburg Main Street, said he thought members of his group would support the idea of the center and offer up their services.
Refurbishing the building would be both a continuation of restoration projects such as the Catlettsburg train depot and caboose and a new beginning of restoration downtown that will hopefully be followed by others.
“I think it is a lynchpin of what can happen in Catlettsburg,” Branham said of the depot restoration.
Lynn Hutchinson, chairwoman of the Boyd County Extension District Board, said the project needed approval from several different committees, including the district board.
But she said the project is feasible for the extension district.
“I’m a Catlettsburg girl so I, too, like to see the expansion of Catlettsburg,” she said.
KATIE BRANDENBURG can be reached at kbrandenburg@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.
