Dame Busters

I admit I am using a play on words in the title. Many is the eve that I am spent in the two places. Ad to that the restaurant that is now in its 2nd or 3rd iteration that used to be a drug store across the corner and Irish Pub down the street named McCarthy’s and you pretty much have my social scene for a large part of my college years, somewhat during after college and especially after the divorce so many years ago. And to just show how things are cyclical in nature, where did I start hanging out again after things went crazy back in 2007? Gosh, that really seems like it was longer ago than that now.

Anyway, for that do not know, The Dame has for as long as I can remember been the music scene here in Lexington. It had live music sometimes as many as six nights a week. Often there were local bands that were just trying to get a little exposure and wanting a place to play. Other times, it was groups that were traveling, doing that chasing their dream kind of thing. And on occasion there would be someone who come through and play that was just like what are you doing playing in a small dive like this kind of thing – I always figured they must have booked before they really nailed it.

Buster’s was a pool hall for the part that was right next door. Many is the time that I have been down town, had a bit too much to drink and cooled my heels while shooting some pool with someone in that establishment. Many is the time I have also went downtown just to go to Buster’s with some friends to shoot a game of pool too.

As I am sure almost anyone with in a 100 miles of Lexington knows now, that block is now being demolished. Actually, more correctly, as the pictures down below that block is pretty much already completely destroyed. There is a movement by a development group to level the block of its semi historical buildings and all the culture that was contained and replace it with a high-rise hotel type of building.  I could wax on about the questionable need of such building, given the current typical occupancy rates of other similar hotels in the downtown area, the historical track record of mothballed facilities of this development group, or most especially about the loss of a piece of history and especially the culture that could found in the area – but that will not really do any good at this point.   It did not do any good prior to demolition starting either, as there were some groups that tried to fight it in courts and such to no avail.

An aside note, my current roommate and I met in The Dame, she suggested that we should have handcuffed our selves to the doors or something of that nature. I suspect that aside from getting our pictures in the paper, followed by an arrest, that it would have also seen nothing come of it in saving the block from its destruction.

Over the last several weeks, I have been snapping pictures of the proge?ssive levelling of a city block. It is interesting to see the various things revealed out of the old buildings that had just be covered up in layers of additional more modern history. The old drugstore stone/concrete symbols for instance were an interesting discovery of such a nature. I have to wonder how many things like that were missed as the claws grabbed things and tore them down. Well, here is my tribute to the hours of fun and entertainment that will never be the same. Perhaps in some small way the pictures will help to remind of what has been lost.

The above was written quiet some number of weeks back. I have continued with snapping a few shots here and there and probably have a few more to take, based on what I saw the other day when I passed by the area. First, the demolition is nearly complete, showing only the smoothed out hole in the earth that is lightly filled in with the ground up bits of mortar that they are apparently using as back-fill. A good note for them, though I sure this is profit motivated – which is not bad mind you. Anyway, all the whole brick are stacked on pallets, bound and labeled, obviously to be salvaged and reused in some project somewhere. Obviously a few more of the pictures that are required.

Interestingly enough, The Dame itself recently reopened in a new more modern facility about three blocks East on Main Street on the other side. It is a slightly largely venue and so far they have promised to continue in the same kind of general vein.