Newly bought Main Street building tells deep Winchester history

Brenda Salyers, a long-time Winchester res­i­dent, is per­haps best known as the own­er of Frames on Main, locat­ed at 10 N. Main Street. However, own­ing sev­er­al prop­er­ties, Salyers recent­ly added anoth­er to her list when she bought the build­ing at 24 N. Main Street – just a few doors down. The build­ing, which now hosts The Past Time Social Club and Cigar Lounge, was also home to the like­wise named Pastime Theatre many years ago.

Unfortunately, the scene was home to one of Winchester’s great­est tragedies when a roof col­lapse led to mul­ti­ple deaths. Although a mark­er states that eleven peo­ple were killed, Salyers stat­ed that – through her research – she believed 12 indi­vid­u­als had died. A grim reminder point­ed out the fact that there is still evi­dence of the disaster.

Although the offi­cial cause of the acci­dent was deter­mined to be a wind­storm, it’s worth not­ing that a fire had dam­aged the J.T. Luman build­ing, locat­ed next door, just days ear­li­er. Earlier in the day, reports indi­cate that the wall of the burned build­ing swayed in the heavy winds. Pointing to one sec­tion of the wall found on the sec­ond floor of the mod­ern build­ing, Salyers continued.

“I told [con­trac­tors] to stop, don’t do any­thing else to this wall ever, and I sealed it,” she said. “Right here, it says, ‘this build­ing stopped smok­ing May 4, 1918.’” 

Salyers believes that, even 100+ years lat­er, the vic­tims – many of whom were chil­dren – should be remem­bered. “I put all of their names here in frames…and I’m hop­ing to get pic­tures,” she said. “This is my memo­r­i­al wall.” 

Yet this is far from the only Winchester his­to­ry to be found inside the long-stand­ing struc­ture. Many of the orig­i­nal fur­ni­ture and designs are still in place, includ­ing a sink from the 1880s and the orig­i­nal bath­tub. Each of the rooms has been unique­ly named by Salyers, with two notable exam­ples being the Keeneland Room, named in hon­or of Keeneland Race Track, and the Gorge Room, which hon­ors the Red River Gorge. Though not orig­i­nal, a vin­tage Tiffany chan­de­lier is includ­ed at the top of the stairs. Lights for­mer­ly from the since-col­lapsed Cartwright build­ing are show­cased, and the inte­ri­or of the build­ing is sur­round­ed by Salyers’ orig­i­nal art­work – all fea­tur­ing Winchester land­marks such as the Leeds Center for the Arts, Clark County Courthouse, the Old Stone Church, and more. 

Future plans are being con­sid­ered for the third floor, while an out­door walk­way includes roof access, and the first floor still show­cas­es evi­dence of the old movie theater’s location.

The build­ing, pre­vi­ous­ly owned by Bob Tabor, also holds per­son­al sig­nif­i­cance for Salyers, whose grand­par­ents lived in an apart­ment at the loca­tion while she was young. “I remem­ber those steps,” she said. “About three years ago, Mr. Tabor walked in and said, ‘you still want to buy my build­ing?’, and I said yes.” 

24 N. Main Street is thus both a labor of love for Salyers and a spot of inter­est for Clark County his­to­ri­ans, who pass by it dur­ing every site tour of down­town. “I just love the build­ing,” Salyers concluded.