Lucky

It's a mystery no more! A few days ago we posted on our social media about the "gargoyle" at 330 W. Main St. (gargoyles are strictly for water spouts, so he is a technically a "grotesque" and more specifically a "griffin") and we have an update to quell all the curiosity!

His name is "Lucky", and we have more info below from Tim Burk.

"Lucky" stands guard greeting visitors to Old Town heading eastbound. Lucky is perched above 330 W. Main Street abutting the old Masonic Temple next door to it. Photo courtey of Phil Rodenbeck.

"Fordson" trucks of the Walter Grass Company along Main Street in front of 332 and 330 W. Main Street, promoting the opening of the Fordson dealership building three buildings east. 27 May 1926, The Franklin Evening Star.

332 and 330 W. Main Street, promoting the opening of the Fordson dealership building three buildings east, but calling these the "Old Building" despite them being 6 and 3 years old, respectively! 27 May 1926, The Franklin Evening Star.

A very early view of the Jones-Pendleton Ford Building at 332 W. Main St., or later the Walter Grass Company building as of 1921, sometime between 1920 and 1923. The building at 330 W. Main is yet to be built. Notice the old plow on the very far right of the image. Photo courtesy of the Johnson County Museum of History.

An unknown man standing in front of what was the Walter Grass Building or 330 W. Main St.. This photo was part of a series of photographs taken for the newspaper of people at work and play around downtown Greenwood and this was probably shot in the late 1930s.

A photo of Walter Grass who was both a car dealer and also insurance man. He left his own agency in May 1929 before the stock market crashed. 10 May 1929, Franklin Evening Star.

The Greenwood Centennial Headquarters was stationed at 330 W. Main during the Greenwood area Centennial in August 1964. 11 August 1964, Franklin Evening Star.

Note how the brickwork on the building at 330 W. Main is very distinctive. The Masonic Temple is beyond it, and in the background on the right side you can faintly see the Johnson Block Building (closest to the right) and further beyond it is where Revery is located. Does anybody recognize this man? Photo courtesy of the Johnson County Museum of History.

Tim Burk, the building owner at 330 W. Main Street, has the following info about Lucky and some history of the building!

"It appears our little guy has lost his steam. Yesterday, there was plenty of debate about exactly where—and when—this architectural element came from. But the reality, while meaningful to me, isn't nearly as colorful as the history of the building itself.

"Nearly a century ago, 330 West Main didn't even exist. To its west stood a bustling Ford dealership (332 W. Main), a place so prominent it was rumored Henry Ford himself dropped in for a visit. Back then, buyers of a shiny new Model T could drive their purchase straight out the front doors onto Main Street.

"By 1930, business was booming, and the dealership desperately needed a body shop. Hemmed in by a showroom in the front and a garage in the back, they had nowhere to grow—until they looked at the empty alleyway separating the dealership from the three-story Lodge building next door. They capped the alley with a front wall, a back wall, a shed roof, and a New York-style skylight. Just like that, a body shop was born.

"Over the decades, this makeshift building wore many hats, leaving behind a trail of historical artifacts. It served as a local polling place, the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, the American Safe Deposit Association, dry cleaning storage for Kiser Cleaners, and a computer repair shop. Today, it’s a quiet office space, but in 1998, Tracy Webb and I used it to launch Metro Printed Products—an offshoot of my brother Russ Burk’s company, Metro Graphics.

"Every new business needs a mascot, and during our remodel, a concrete gargoyle rose to the occasion. My brother happens to be the king of clichés, and because Tracy and I always loved the phrase, 'I'd rather be lucky than good any day,' we named the little guy Lucky.

"Ironically, his luck ran out. A few years later, someone decided they needed him more than we did. They dropped him off the back of the building, smashing poor Lucky to bits. My search for an identical casting turned up empty, so I ultimately settled on our current creature: a Griffin, sporting the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. He actually took up residence before our facade project, but this time, the stone mason tuck-pointing the brick made sure this monster won't be flying away anytime soon."

We wanted to add some additional information from our historical files as well!

The Jones-Pendleton Company was a Ford dealer from Franklin and they built the Ford dealership in Greenwood that is today's 332 W. Main. Smith H. Jones of that firm purchased the land and by December 1919 construction had started. Weather was bad that winter but the garage was completed by late spring 1920 at a cost of $10,000 and opened for business on Saturday, 26 June 1920.

The building switched ownership to the Walter Grass Company in 1921, owned by Walter Grass who had been involved with the automobile industry in Greenwood for six years and had been the Jones-Pendleton manager in Greenwood (he later proposed opening a "Cat farm" to skin cats for fur, similar to how Whiteland had a "Skunk farm" at the time--but that is another story for another day!)

Despite Smith Jones' company changing hands, Jones retained ownership of the land and purchased the empty lot next to the dealership building in February 1923. Just a few short months later in May 1923, the building that is now 332 W. Main was completed. In 1926, Grass built a "Fordson" dealership (Fordson was a Ford tractor) building showroom in what is now the Lee Money Building. Grass made such a big deal about that opening that there were some terrific pictures in the newspaper with the buildings that we share here--the real photos are probably lost to time but at least we have these!

Grass sold his share with his own agency in May 1929 but it remained a dealership building after then. As Tim mentioned, the building has worn many hats over the years. Another fascinating tidbit about the building is it was also the headquarters for the Greenwood Centennial festivities celebrating Greenwood's 100th birthday in 1964.

We are so "Lucky" to have Tim share the information about his building and statue!