A Tennessee couple had the high bid of $90,000 at an auction Friday afternoon for a 135-year-old commercial building in the 600 block of South Main Street.
Fred and Sharon Wilharm were among a small number of bidders at the live auction conducted by Bolinger Real Estate and Auction for owner Lester Benny Guier, an attorney. A few parties also cast bids online.
Fred Wilharm told Hoptown Chronicle that he and his wife are interested in historic properties. They are producers of Christian films, and she is also a faith speaker and has a podcast, “All God’s Women.”
The property, located at 610 S. Main St., sold for less than its tax-assessed value of $120,000. It sits in a block of four buildings catty-corner from the courthouse and adjacent to Sixth Street.
Constructed in 1886, the building was a grocery early on. Around 1912, Hopkinsville tailor James Knox Hooser set up shop and installed an artful, colored-glass sign bearing his name over the front entrance.
The building appears to have had little to no exterior work in this century, but the tailor’s sign survives.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
