The town is buzzing with talk about revitalizing downtown Paris lately and this morning construction started on “restoring” what was known as the old Carriage House building back to its original early 20th-century charm.
“The metal across the front of the building above 17 & 21 Clarksville Street is being pulled down and we’re restoring it back to how it was when originally built,” said owner Janet Green.
After retiring and closing Carriage House in December 2017, owners Keith and Janet Green originally planned on selling the building before deciding to turn back the clocks and restore it to how it looked when built in 1916.
“It is technically three separate buildings,” said Janet. “We opened up two of them for Carriage House but since closing, we built a firewall in-between 21 and 27 (Clarksville St) so we now have three buildings.”
The Green’s took ownership of the building in 2013 which was previously owned by Gene Rader (locally known as Gene the Jeweler) who covered the front of the buildings in the 70’s and 80’s.
“We were just going to sell but it’s over 10,000 sq. ft. all together so we came up with a plan to make them separate entities.”
Janet envisions a small restaurant at 17 Clarksville Street and retail space in the other buildings (21 and 27 Clarksville St) in the future.
“17 Clarksville St has a full kitchen so would make a perfect restaurant or sandwich shop. We will also be taking the ‘eye windows’ out of the front to open the front of that space up.”
Once the restorations are complete, Janet said they are open to renting or selling the space but want to finish the construction before going down that path.
