Answer:  Clifford Martin, owner of the building, was able to fill us in on the building’s history.  Currently, the building is a mixed use structure with residential apartments upstairs. Downstairs is a church on one side of the building named Team Ministries and on the other side is the Capoeira Cultural Center (754 N. Lime).  Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian dance form that incorporates self-defense maneuvers, according to the Web site Answers.com.

The building’s origins are even more intriguing.  Behind the current building at 758 Limestone, was a warehouse built in 1855.  In 1885 the Luigart family, from Cincinnati via Germany, purchased the property and added a hemp house to the structure and later a malt house.  The malt house took barley, dried it and sold it to brewing companies to make beer.  When the brewing industry moved elsewhere, Martin says, the family started making Luigart Coolers – the boxes used to house blocks of ice used for refrigeration.  In 1905, a new front was added to the property, the current 758 North Limestone building.  The new structure was one of the first poured cement buildings in Lexington. Also, Martin was told, the building was designed by Lexington architect Herman L. Rowe, who also designed the Lexington Opera House.  Upstairs, at the time, were a boarding house and the home of one of the Luigart sons. A grocery store and a pool hall occupied the down stairs space. Martin says the ornate décor on the front of the building including the concrete lions was a popular style for German buildings at the turn of the century.

About six years ago, Martin bought the building from a surviving member of the Luigart family and is trying to restore the property.

Linda Niemi