Like antiques? You can bid on this Kentucky auction from home this week
Perhaps Louisville’s most eclectic and famous collection of antiques and oddities is going up for auction this week.
Longtime NuLu business owner Joe Ley was a treasure in this community and ― now three years after his three-story-schoolhouse-turned-antique shop closed ― his fans have a chance to buy from his mass collection of local history and memorabilia, again.
The online auction for Ley’s estate begins at 1 p.m. on Wednesday at HarrittGroup.com and will run until Oct. 26 at 1 p.m. The auction will be offered in multiple sessions, and it includes hand-picked items from his Louisville business complex, off-site warehouses and Ley’s personal private collection.
Ley died earlier this year and his family has requested privacy, according to Doug Harritt, who was a friend of Ley’s and is president of The Harritt Group. Ley was an institution in Louisville and his store at 614. E. Market St. was both loved by locals and drew in people from all over the country.
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Glimpsing through the long list of auction items almost feels like stepping back into that old school house. The first item listed is “Joe Ley Antique’s hand-lettered shop sign.”
Among the dozens of items listed is a double-sided Clabber Girl Baking Powder metal sign, a Butter Crackers tin, Kentucky Fried Chicken type printing blocks, an 1800’s Victorian baby carriage, a German Glockenspiel xylophone, Boy Scout of American official first aid kit and a pair of Falls City Beer store display signs.
Ley was well-known for his passion for Fontaine Ferry Park, which was an amusement park on the edge of Louisville’s Shawnee Park that closed in the 1960s after race riots. As a child, he couldn’t afford the nickel to get inside, and he often looked through the hole in the park’s fence and swore that one day he’d have a piece of Fontaine Ferry. The estate auction includes a wide selection of memorabilia from the park such as a Fontaine Ferry Park cast aluminum horse and jockey figurines as well as roller skates and a carrying case.
Ley’s lasting footprint on Louisville is nearly as colorful as his taste in treasures. In 1990, Ley approached local business and property owners to join him in signing a petition to the city of Louisville to create a plan to deal with issues of theft and homelessness in the East Market District area. A year later, he became one of the founding members of the East Downtown Business Association, which today is known as the NuLu Business Association.
“When you think about how that affected the entire development of the neighborhood, I credit him for making NuLu what it is today,” said Rick Murphy, the current president of the association. “He was the original visionary that thought the Old East Market District could become a center for arts.”
More than 30 years later, NuLu has grown into that and more. The neighborhood is a booming destination for retail shops, hotels and restaurants.
Campisano Capital, a New York City real estate development and investment firm, purchased the old school building from Ley in August 2019. For decades Ley and his signature ponytail were fixtures on East Market Street, and he told The Courier Journal in 2019 that the “heartbreaking” decision to sell the business was largely due to his health.
Antiquing wasn’t just his job, it was his calling. He dedicated his career to collecting and preserving the history of Louisville. Ley was a master at remembering the names of his longtime clients, their kids and their dogs, and he remembered who bought what items and where they were delivered.
“Joe was a really interesting guy and a nice person,” Murphy said. “He had a gruff exterior, and was genuinely a good guy, and his love of Louisville was unchallenged. He just thought Louisville was a really special place.”
Features columnist Maggie Menderski writes about what makes Louisville, Southern Indiana and Kentucky unique, wonderful, and occasionally, a little weird. If you’ve got something in your family, your town or even your closet that fits that description — she wants to hear from you. Say hello at mmenderski@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4053. Follow along on Instagram and Twitter @MaggieMenderski.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Kentucky Fried Chicken, Falls City Beer items featured in auction
