Store Ordered To Repaint Window Frame

The Indy Channel ^ | February 7, 2006 | AP

[Abathar]

NASHVILLE, Ind. -- Officials in the rustic southern Indiana tourist town of Nashville are ordering a store owner to repaint a bright blue window frame.

Nashville's nine-member Development Review Commission has told the owners of J Bob's that they have until Aug. 1 to repaint the window frame to a more appropriate color.

The owner's daughter said her 79-year-old father repainted the window before leaving for a winter vacation in Florida. She said her mother got a call complaining about the color and thought the whole thing was silly.

The president of the Development Review Commission said they are coming up with a palate of acceptable colors for the town.

J Bob's sells merchandise including hot sauce and troll dolls to tourists who arrive each fall to look at the changing leaves.

[WVNan]

I'm getting nostalgic. Think I'll arrange a trip back there this summer. This is how I remember it.

[70times7]

That was in Illinois. We are discussing Nashville INDIANA.

Well... Had I KNOWN I certainly would have thought the building PRETTIER!

pssst - he posted a picture of a building from Illionis... sickem'

[Protagoras]

Just one more bit of evidence that,,,,the frog is cooked.

[Old Professer]

No accounting for taste.

[Protagoras]

It's all fun and games until your property value drops.

The well known "right to property values" is alive and well all across this formerly free country.

[Old Professer]

I just read your home page and I want to say that I think you are an expert on nut pies, if I'm ever in Indiana, I'll try and look you up.

[MamaB]

Paint it polka dotted like that owner did to his house.

[Jhohanna]

Aw come on now.... You should know that Breckenridge is a fair sized city for Colorado now! :D When I was growing up there, Dillon was a LOT bigger. *sigh* 'Course, Breckenridge only had 13 runs too.

Then the Californians moved in and took over Boulder and started fanning out. I left before it got too nuts. And where'd I move to? *hahahahah* Where the jobs were. I can't wait to come home.

Julian is a joke - Everyone goes there for the pies, but I don't get it. It's not that great. It's far to kitsch to be real. But, everyone goes out there every Sunday to pay $20/person for lunch and then buy their pies. *sigh*

And people wonder why I hate it here.

[muawiyah]

If you want kitsch, I suppose dirt is unacceptable, but if you want "authenticity", it's a different matter ~ like the Stardust in Bloomington where Hoagy Carmichael composed Stardust.

[muawiyah]

Nashville was a tourist trap when my grandfather was young. He was born in one of the brownstone houses in fact. I think the gold played out about then though.

[muawiyah]

Adherence to what seem to be very minimal standards is probably the route to financial security for the people of the town.

The bright blue window frame may well endanger the fragile local economic base and put hundreds of people on welfare which will be paid out of YOUR POCKET.

[bannie]

The Californians came from somewhere else first. After they came here and screwed up California, they spread out to mess up other states.

[muawiyah]

Uh, yeah, have known a few "nuts" in my time, Fur Shur.

[LexBaird]

If the only thing between financial security and plummeting into welfare dependency for an entire town is the color of a windowframe, then they've got far more problems than a historical purity commissar can fix.

The problem with "very minimal standards" of mandatory arbitrariness is that they inevitably and rapidly bloom into "maximal". Towns that legislate conformity to some arcane code of quaintness end up being plastic parodies of it instead. When they start specifying a governmentally approved color scheme, they may as well put up a shopping mall and call it the "Ye Olde Quaint Village Center".

[panaxanax]

I lived in Leavenworth, WA back in the mid-eighty's while working in the apple industry. Did you ever see a picture of the town before they did the updated Bavarian theme? Nothing but an old railroad town full of shacks and broken-down buildings.

Leavenworth is an exception and the codes apply only to the downtown area or at least they used to. What you don't see in this photo is 1/2 block to the east (left in photo) there is a large apple packing shed. This huge concrete building was a topic of discussion by the town board even back then, but they soon realized that apples rule in this part of the country. It's a nice tourist spot and well worth the trip.

[muawiyah]

Without looking at the window frame, I think I already know what the man's real problem is ~ he used a modern high gloss acrylic paint ~ the "plastic" village look you are deriding.

I expect authentic tackiness and turn of the 19th/20th century small town developmental irregularity when I visit Nashville.

Now our own village was on top of Weed Patch Hill, so it's not like this is some sort of ancestral pilgrimage, but the family did sell baskets there to the tourists out to check out the arts and the crafts.

[Mr. Lucky]

Gosh, I still own a log cabin and my family's farm about half way between Helmsburg and Mahalasville.

[muawiyah]

Hedrick, Hovis, Brooks, ........... ?

[panaxanax]

Here's an obvious protest to color restrictions in Cooperstown, NY.

img src = "http://www.catskillginseng.com/html/DSCN3995a.jpg>

[Sensei Ern]

Our local hysterical society objected to our church's building sign. The pastor changed the font from COurier to Typeset, and they approved it.