As we continue to make our way east on Main Street, it’s interesting to note the residential legacy of the three lots across the street from where the KFC is today. We’re talking about the present locations for Doodles Book Store, Blue Phrog Gallery, and Anderson Eye Care. In the photo grouping above, the house in the upper left was located for many years on the lot where Doodles sits today. This house was the home where Teamon McCulley grew up. He was the enterprising Main Street grocer with a store next to the bank who we met at the beginning of the Throwback Thursday series.
Next door, where Blue Phrog Gallery is today, was a house owned by the Sims family. It was torn down and replaced by the modern structure we see there today when Jefferson Federal Savings and Loan Association came to Montevallo in the 1970’s.
And finally, Anderson Eye Care’s corner lot was where the Kendrick family had a house that was their home in the 1940’s, 1950’s, and 1960’s.
Across the street from these houses was another vacant lot and pecan orchard for many years. For a few years in the early 1960’s, a mobile home was moved to the same spot that “Office Plaza” occupies today, but it was in violation of a city ordinance that prohibited mobile homes on Main Street and Highway 119. The City forced the owner to move the trailer to an approved area in another part of town. Not long after this situation was resolved, Victor Scott, a prominent Montevallo businessman and former owner of Montevallo Motor Co. (Montevallo’s Chevrolet dealership) bought the lot and soon built the Office Plaza as a base for his Scott-Long Insurance and Realty Co. along with a construction company he had started. He also leased additional office space in the Plaza to other local businesses and professionals.
Mr. Scott was well known around town and very active in the Montevallo Chamber of Commerce. He also realized the opportunity that opened up for businessmen such as himself when the University of Montevallo relaxed its restrictions on students living off campus. He was instrumental in the construction and rental of many apartment complexes within the city limits at that time and became the leasing and management agent of choice for investors in local rental properties.
Thank you Clay Nordan, Vice President of Montevallo Historical Society, for this information!
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