`LUCKY' MAKES A LUCKY FIND IN GORDONVILLE

Lindy sits before the 10-foot tall, plate glass window on the second story of his Gordonville building. He says the process of restoring the stucture is one of combining old and new and explains that while the window may not fit in with the rest of the building, he can't wait to sit in a window seat and watch it snow this winter.

Lindy brushes dust from one of several cypress archways found in his store building in Gorndonville. Lindy and his family are working to restore the unique, 82-year-old structure, an antique itself, and use it as the site of an antique shop with their home in the building's upstairs portion.

Les "Lucky" Lindy says he'll call his antique shop the Lucky Find.

It's probably the most appropriate name the Jackson man could use for any shop which allows shoppers to locate -- after many months or even years of searching -- a rare or unique item. But for Lindy, the shop itself came after just the type of search that any antique hound would make for a desired item.

Earlier this year, Lindy and his wife Helen were fortunate enough to find a building that offered the kind of quaint, historic atmosphere needed for an antique shop. In addition, the structure's upstairs portion has more than enough room for a spacious living area for the couple and their two daughters.

Located on Route Z in Gordonville, the two-story brick structure looks the part of the type of mercantile store seen in the old west. Its high, straight facade is marked with large, plate glass windows and a wooden door which opens upon a high and broad loading dock-style front porch.

On the second story are several tall windows about which are a row of what appear to be masonry columns.

Lindy says the building and a couple of others are among a few reminders that Gordonville was once a "heck of a town," with a population as large as that of Jackson.

"We wanted to open an antique store but we couldn't afford to live in one place and have a store in another," Lindy explained of the start of his search for a building which would serve as both a home and a shop.

"I knew of a couple of places like that and this was the first one I came to," he said. "It was owned by a man here in town and we talked about it and negotiated for about a month and finally we bought it."

What Lindy and his wife bought was a two-story building with a full basement and a storied past.

The structure was built to last, as Lindy is quick to point out. The walls of its basement are four feet thick and constructed of sandstone from an old quarry about two miles north of town.

"You can still see where that quarry was," said Lindy.

Upon this sandstone foundation, the walls of the ground-level floor received equal attention. They are four bricks thick, and each of those bricks was hand-formed locally and dried in the sun. The building's upper floor is contained within walls three bricks thick.

Within this brick frame are floors made of poplar and window casings made of cypress -- the only two woods which termites will not eat, according to Lindy, who added that cypress was an excellent choice for the exposed window casings because it does not swell with moisture as other woods do.

Atop the store is a roof constructed of 10-inch-by-2-inch poplar planks.

In addition to the locally quarried sandstone and hand-formed brick, the square nails used to hold the structure together are also the work of a local craftsman whose name did not whether the passage of time as well as did his building.

The structure is as full of local history as it is full of local handiwork.

"It was built in 1912 by Mr. G.F. Seimers," said Lindy. "It began as a bar and has been a firehouse, a church, an exhibition hall, a furrier's shop and even a bank.

"It had a stage in the back when it was an exhibition hall and the local school used to have its plays and other things here," he added. "One of the local men remembers pulling one of his classmates across the stage in a little, red wagon during one of the school plays."

Also during its exhibition hall days, Lindy said the building was a popular site for boxing matches and other large functions.

Just as antique hunters like to preserve the past through their antique collections, the Lindys hope to do the same by restoring the building.

"People aren't saving enough of these old buildings," Lindy lamented. "If someone else had bought this place, they would have torn it down."

The family began the restoration work shortly after their purchase of the building this spring but suffered a setback when Les Lindy was injured in an automobile collision.

Since that time, he has focused on directing the restoration efforts of his wife, brother-in-law and friends, who tackle some of the more strenuous work while Lindy helps locate the antique fixtures used to restore and remodel the structure.

Among the items Lindy has found are bronze light fixtures which will be used in an upstairs bathroom while items from the building's days as a bank -- heavy wooden doors and wainscoting -- will be a part of the renovation of the downstairs shop area.

He says the restoration process is one of combining the old with the new, adding that his favorite part of the home is most illustrative of this process.

"A friend of mine gave me a piece of plate glass that is 42-inches wide and 10-feet tall," he explained. "My dad hates it because he says it doesn't fit in with the rest of the building but I like it and I can't wait to sit up there in the winter and watch it snow."

New and old will be joined both upstairs and down when workmen begin sanding the rough poplar flooring. Once done, the floor will be waxed with the kind of heavy, shiny wax used on basketball courts, giving a new and more domestic life to a floor that was probably meant be more utilitarian than good looking.

It will be partially covered with hand-woven area rugs the Lindys are preparing for the upstairs living portion of their "lucky find."

Another area where new and old will be combined will be inside the building's front facade upstairs.

The area which appears from the outside to be a collection of columns and other masonry adornments is in reality a hand-formed galvanized tin skin. The ornate skin was installed by a group of St. Louis craftsmen when the building was constructed.

However, the skin is the only thing that stands between the elements and the inside of the building and because it does not fit tightly to the main portion of the structure and has a very low insulation value, a company has been called in from Johnson City, Ill., to spray in a state-of-the-art foam which will keep moisture out and -- with the incredible insulation value of 21 -- the heat in the building.

"It's very rewarding to know that the building has stood here for 82 years and it's probably going to stand for another 82, the Lord willing and the creeks don't rise," said Lindy of his lucky find.