The Burchay Building in the 800 block of Market Street has been a distinctive part of the downtown Chattanooga streetscape for more than a century, though its undisputed architectural glory has been somewhat tarnished in the last few years. There are better times ahead, it seems, for the venerable building – if the restoration planned by the historic structure’s new owner comes to fruition.
Stief Counts, who bought the building last month from the Maclellan Foundation, pledges to restore the building and to make it an integral part of downtown again. That’s a positive and a welcome commitment. The community must wait, however, to see the result of the planned restoration.
Counts, who tried to acquire the building for four years before making a successful deal, forthrightly says that he doesn’t know how the building will look when the restoration is completed, or how long the project will take. “I just want to fix the building and keep with the original architecture. Hopefully along the way we’ll figure out something neat to do with it.”
There’s no need to rush now. It’s been a half-dozen years since the prior owners agreed to preserve the building until a preservation-oriented buyer could be found. Careful planning is what’s need now to restore the landmark.
The Burchay site, with its distinctive cut-limestone facade, a turret, stone carving and arched windows (though they are currently bricked up) is one of few remaining reminders of a bustling era in Chattanooga’s commercial history. Built as a bank in 1890, the structure later served as music studio, a saloon and a savings and loan before it became home to Burchay’s, a furrier that gave its name to the building in the 1930s. Hard times followed after the closure of Burchay’s a decade ago.
The stately three-story building, which once stretched almost from Market to Broad, was truncated in order to make room for a parking lot at its rear. What’s left fills a relatively small footprint on Market Street. Various plans and projects to restore and revitalize the remnant have come to naught. The result is a stately building with strong architectural bones and undeniable presence, but one that is slowly, surely sliding into a state of shameful disrepair.
Now, it is up to Counts to reverse that decline and to restore the building to its rightful place of prominence in the community’s architectural framework.
The Burchay Building’s much reduced size will create unique challenges for Counts and the renovation. Careful planning and attention to period detail, however, should allow Counts – an experienced builder who has worked on projects at the Tennessee Aquarium and the Museum Bluffs development – to meet the dual and equally important challenges of creating a building that preserves history and that provides a viable space for contemporary use. Downtown, indeed the entire community, will be the better when the project is completed successfully.