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Inspired by the frets and strings of a guitar, the new entrance sign installed in December on Southland Drive and Nicholasville Road (below) highlights the street’s music history and mid-century aesthetic. Photo by Bill Straus
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One of Lexington’s most recognizable buildings, the Oleika Shrine Temple is located at the center of the corridor. Photo by Bill Straus
Few corridors in Lexington can boast as unique and eclectic a collection of businesses as Southland Drive. The one-mile stretch from Nicholasville Road to Rosemont Garden is home to dozens of locally owned businesses, including salons, pet stores and wellness centers; shops specializing in home decor, hobby items, music instruments and formal wear; restaurants, bake shops and specialty grocery markets; and services ranging from jewelers and auto centers to sign makers and medical supplies.
“You see a lot of stores come and go, [but] you see a lot of remodeling right now,” said Darren Mullins, a Southland area native and owner of the Southland Barber Shop. “I think you’ll see a lot more changes in the next 10 years.”
Change has certainly been a theme for the past decade, with infrastructure investments, commercial redevelopments and new community events having been consistent recent features for the bustling and diverse business corridor. However, the area – well known for its eclectic, inclusive and welcoming character – carries a much longer history as one of Lexington’s most notable retail and business districts.
Historic Southland
“Southland was the first shopping center in Lexington,” claims Don Hurt, a local property owner who founded Old Kentucky Chocolates on Southland Drive in 1969.
In its early years, the Southland area boasted a “one-stop” shopping district, complete with Kroger, Woolworth’s, McGee’s bakery, Hallmark, a druggist and the once-famous Kelly’s Milk Jug. Also born in that era was the Southland Barber Shop, which opened in 1955 and is now operated by second-generation barbers.
Some Lexingtonians will even remember historic Southland Drive as a major culinary corridor, once home to restaurants that included Lum’s, Jerry’s, Ponderosa, Leo’s Oyster Bar, Ireland (a common dining spot for the UK men’s basketball team) and the first ever Long John Silver’s.
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With its iconic “Bowl” sign giving distinctive flavor to the street’s mid-centruy aesthetic, the Southland Drive’s Collins Bowling Center location opened in 1960. Photo by Bill Straus
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The longstanding health food market and cafè Good Foods Co-Op. Photo by Bill Straus
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The locally owned health food market and cafè Good Foods Co-Op has long been an anchor business on Southland Drive. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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The health food market and cafè Good Foods Co-Op has long been an anchor on Southland Drive. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Restaurant and music venue Willie’s Locally Known. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Restaurant and music venue Willie’s Locally Known. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Restaurant and music venue Willie’s Locally Known. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Restaurant and music venue Willie’s Locally Known. Photo by Estill Robinson
Southland’s Renewal
As many of those businesses closed over the decades, the Southland area’s status as a premiere shopping and dining dwindled for a period, with several commercial properties languishing empty for years and causing portions of the corridor to become visually blighted. But new investments in recent years and months have made strides in restoring the area’s cachet.
Bookending the corridor are two new commercial developments that opened in the past year and a half: Hampton Inn, located on the corner of Nicholasville Road, and HealthFirst Bluegrass, located on Southland Drive one block from Rosemont Garden. In between, developments include two new buildings around the Southland Collins Bowling Center, a new building for Southside Auto Repair at the old 76 spot, extensive exterior and interior renovations at Good Foods Co-Op and numerous additional facelifts along the street. The “culinary corridor” status is on the rise again as well, with favorite longstanding eateries The Ketch and Winchell’s having been joined more recently by Taziki’s, Willie’s Locally Known and Mai Thai. The popular German-themed restaurant and pub Marikka’s, which has operated for more than two decades on the street, was recently razed to make way for an extensively renovated and expanded new building, complete with indoor and outdoor volleyball courts. The new space is set to open sometime this year.
All in all, business on Southland Drive is good – total commercial property value rose over 50 percent since 2006, according to data provided by Fayette County PVA David O’Neill, and the new Hampton Inn’s occupancy rate exceeds 70 percent, an exceptional number for a new hotel.
Beyond the business boom, residential sales in the area have reached new heights, with many houses in the neighborhoods adjacent to the business corridor selling within minutes of reaching the market – if not before. The attraction to the area reflects a trend among millennials and younger home-buyers seeking a mix of urban and suburban lifestyles. Affordability and nearby schools are two factors, but O’Neill also credits the area’s diverse shopping district and developing biking and public transportation.
The strong and organized community support surrounding the area is another draw, with numerous community projects having contributed to the area’s changing character in recent years. The visual appeal of the street has never been better, with recent projects including planting more than 130 trees, installing rain gardens, repaving Southland Drive (with bike lanes!), added sidewalks under the railroad bridge and the addition of an artistic bus shelter, which was installed last year near Good Foods Co-Op.
All of these projects were initiated or facilitated by the Southland Association, a nonprofit community service organization dedicated to making the Southland Area a “safe, attractive, and welcoming place to shop, eat, do business and live.” Founded in 2004, the Southland Association is an inclusive organization with a membership base that includes local businesses, non-profits, neighborhood associations and individuals. Membership dues are leveraged to apply for grants and other funding to complete their projects, and by forming public-private partnerships with local businesses and LFUCG officials, the Southland Association has been able to implement larger projects.
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Sneak Attack Recording Studio opened in the back of the Door Wop Shop six years ago. Photo by Bill Straus
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Sneak Attack Recording Studio opened in the back of the Door Wop Shop six years ago. Photo by Bill Straus
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The music instrument rental and retail shop Doo Wop Shop is one of Southland Drive’s most recognizable music businesses. Photo by Bill Straus
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The music instrument rental and retail shop Doo Wop Shop is one of Southland Drive’s most recognizable music businesses. Photo by Bill Straus
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The music instrument rental and retail shop Doo Wop Shop is one of Southland Drive’s most recognizable music businesses. Photo by Bill Straus
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The Drum Center. Photo by Bill Straus
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DIY practice space, record shop and event space Big Hair HQ. Photo by Bill Straus
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Big Hair HQ, co-owned by Nick King, opened within the last year and a half on Southport Drive. Photo by Bill Straus
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Big Hair regularly hosts all ages music shows, with a strict “no alcohol” policy. Photo by Bill Straus
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Barbarian Skate Supply Owner Josh Blaine. The business hares a building with Big Hair HQ, and owners of the two businesses recently co-launched a ‘zine highlighting local underground music and skate culture. Photo by Bill Straus
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Barbarian Skate Supply. Photo by Bill Straus
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Barbarian Skate Suplpy. Photo by Bill Straus
Lexington’s Own “Music Row”
A running motif of Southland Drive has been the area’s distinct musical character; in fact, in 2010, former Mayor Jim Newberry declared Southland Drive “Lexington’s Music Row,” recognizing the musical significance of the area. For decades, a significant population of Lexington’s music instrument retail and rental shops, including Doo Wop Shop, The Drum Center, Don Wilson Music, DW Sound and Willcutt Guitars, have all created a home along the corridor. Near Rosemont Garden, artist Michael Burrell’s mural “In the Market for Music” depicts bluegrass musicians serenading shoppers at the Southland Farmers’ Market. And in December, students with the University of Kentucky Department of Landscape Architecture, along with professional input from Baumann, completed a prominent music-themed entrance sign at the Nicholasville Road intersection, marking a crescendo in the area’s recent progress.
Community Events
The Southland Jamboree, a weekly summer bluegrass music concert series that originated on Southland Drive, is one of many community events developed by the Southland Association; while the series moved to Beaumont Centre’s MoonDance Amphitheater in 2015, organizers are working to bring it back to Southland. On Sundays from April through October, the corridor hosts the Southland Farmers’ Market, and in May, part of Southland Drive shuts down for the annual Southland Street Fair, a “block party”-style event now in its third year. With live music, almost 100 vendors and close to 10,000 attendees, the street fair is one of the largest community events in Lexington.
Also, this May, a handful of local musicians and advocates of the area will present the inaugural Tahlsound Music Festival, with the goal to highlight the area’s strong music community (the festival’s title is an anagram of “Southland”). The first year event will take place in the Oleika Temple Great Lawn, a fenced-in grassy field owned by Oleika Temple featuring a permanent stage.
According to event organizers Seth Murphy, Gareth Evans and Brandon Pittard – who have collectively lived in the neighborhood for almost two decades – the desire to host the festival on Southland grew from an understanding of the street’s importance to the Lexington music community.
“Every [local] musician has been to one of Southland Drive’s music stores at one time or another,” Pittard said. “Southland’s appreciation for the music, art, and community gatherings is just the type of environment to host such an event.”
While that might be true, one recurring challenge of the area cited by community organizers has been where to have them and how people can get to them – the Oleika Great Lawn is tucked behind Dollar General and IncrediPet, hidden from street traffic and rarely used for public events. The street as a whole isn’t (yet) fully pedestrian-friendly, with disconnected strip malls and partial sidewalks often necessitating driving from one business to the next – even those that are only located a few hundred yards apart.
City Support
Several new projects are working to explore and address those concerns.
A $1.8 million end-to-end sidewalks and crosswalks project is currently underway and expected to be completed by May 2018. Two semi-related projects in the works, “Retrofitting the RETRO” and “Rediscovering Southland,” are both intended to reinvigorate the Southland area by engaging neighbors, visitors and local businesses through temporary public “pop-up” interactive installations.
“Retrofitting the RETRO” is a student research project and design competition spearheaded by LFUCG design specialist Brandi Peacher and coordinated by representatives from the University of Kentucky and the Southland Association. A winning design, named “The Music Lounge,” was selected in December will guide the final construction of a “pop-up public space” that incorporates interactive musical elements, landscaping, architecture and seating in a modern-style gazebo.
“Rediscovering Southland” is currently in the last round of the Knight Cities Challenge grant selection process. The project, led by LexArts, proposes to build on the student research from “Retrofitting the RETRO” and expand the concept from one installation to many, plus add artistic crosswalks, a self-guided area tour and a festival with professional musicians performing while attendees experiment with the interactive installations.
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Old Kentucky Chocolates. Photo by Bill Straus
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Old Kentucky Chocolates. Photo by Bill Straus
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The longstanding favorite Southland Drive restaurant and sports bar Winchell’s boasts a casual and comfortable atmosphere to enjoy sports, trivia and Southern food. Photo by Bill Straus
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The longstanding favorite Southland Drive restaurant and sports bar Winchell’s boasts a casual and comfortable atmosphere to enjoy sports, trivia and Southern food. Photo by Bill Straus
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Last Genuine Leather Company. Photo by Bill Straus
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Last Genuine Leather Company. Photo by Bill Straus
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Last Genuine Leather Company. Photo by Bill Straus
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The funky and eclectic shop Homegrown Collectives specializes in clothes, jewelry, art and other pieces created by local artisans. (Co-owner Luke Eldridge pictured here.) The shop also regularly hosts art events and workshops. Photo by Bill Straus
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Bill Straus
The funky shop Homegrown Collectives specializes in local art and other locally crafted objects and accessories. Photo by Bill Straus
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The funky shop Homegrown Collectives specializes in local art and other locally crafted objects and accessories. Photo by Bill Straus
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Coffee shop Southalnd Perk. Photo by Bill Straus
Southland’s Small-Town Pride
While the pedestrian infrastructure for the community is still a work-in-progress, the pride in the area is strong with both the residents and the businesses.
“It’s an honor to be here because we’ve got so much local along Southland Drive to send guests to,” reflects Patrick Easley, director of sales and marketing at Hampton Inn.
Allison Jones, an employee at Old KY Chocolates, sums up the Southland area as being “like it’s own little small town.”
“Everybody here is so friendly,” she said. “It’s a community.”
For Hillary Baumann, the owner of Lexington design service Fascination Design who currently serves as president of the Southland Association, touting the perks of the neighborhood through her work with the group comes pretty easily.
“Over the years, I’ve heard so many stories about the Southland area from current residents – from people who once lived here, from business owners, even from shoppers who just love what this area provides,” Baumann said. “From nostalgic memories to the sense of community and pride in the revitalization of the area, you get the sense of small town vibe in a pocket of Lexington.”
Upcoming Southland Drive Events
Southland Street Fair
Saturday, May 13, 3-8p.m.
www.southlandstreetfair.com
This celebration of Southland-area businesses, featuring live music and a variety of food and retail vendors, has quickly grown over the past several years into one of Lexington’s largest community events, reportedly attracting upwards of 10,000 people last year.
Tahlsound Music Festival
Saturday, May 27, noon-8 p.m.
Oleika Temple Great Lawn
www.facebook.com/tahlsound
Spotlighting Lexington musicians, artists, brewers and chefs (with a special emphasis on the Southland Drive area), this first-year event will feature outdoor music, food and fun for all ages.