Fred Clifford and the Clifford Grocery Partnership were the recipients this week of the latest cash award from the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation’s Façade Grant Program.
The CEDC Board at its regular meeting last Monday approved Clifford’s improvements to this historic Stocking Building at 116 S. Kearney.
The project consisted of replacing broken windowpanes and giving the storefront a fresh coat of paint.
The project received $1,142.61 from the CEDC, which is half of the amount of the improvements. Chris and Terri Ford of Finders Keepers did the work.
Clifford said he had been planning on doing some work on the building but then went with a bigger project.
“I was just going to fix the windows,” Clifford said. “That’s all I was going to do, but then I found out about the grant.”
Clifford appreciates the CEDC’s efforts to improve Kearney Street.
“I think it’s great. You’ve had good luck getting some things done.”
Preserving the history of the Stocking Building was important to Clifford, who says he purchased the building several years ago after having his eye on it for many years.
“I wanted it even when I was in the grocery business next door,” he said, “and I got out of that in 1979.”
Clifford said his building is probably one of the oldest operational buildings in the Panhandle, having its origins at Old Clarendon with the area’s pioneer doctor, J.D. Stocking. When the town moved to New Clarendon in 1887, the building followed the townspeople.
“The rocks and bricks and everything were carried here from the location in Old Clarendon,” Clifford said.
Dr. Stocking practiced medicine in the building for many years, and his family continued Stocking’s Drug Store into the early 1970s.
Since that time, the Stocking Building has housed a variety of businesses and is now home to Clarendon’s municipal court and Judge Jimmy Johnson.
Clifford says he wants to make one further improvement to the building. During the recent project, the awning collapsed and had to be removed. Flashing was put up afterward, but Clifford says he wants to replace that with something that looks better. He just hasn’t decided what yet.
The CEDC has again budgeted $10,000 for this fiscal year’s Façade Grant Program, which provides fifty-fifty matching grants up to a maximum of $2,000 per project for properties on a three-block stretch of Kearney Street between First and Fourth Streets.
Projects eligible for consideration could be anything from a coat of paint to new signage to a complete rehabilitation of a storefront. Those interested in the grants are asked to apply prior to beginning a project.
To date the CEDC has awarded more than $5,000 in façade grants. A sixth application is pending.
The CEDC Board will next meet to consider grant applications on Monday, December 1, at 5:15 p.m. in City Hall.
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