Lexington’s oldest bar honors late bartender with tiny library Chevy Chase Inn replica
We more often associate bars with bottles than with books but a Lexington establishment is making room for both as a way to honor a late bartender and longtime friend.
Russell “Redeye” Salyer of Lexington was a bartender at Chevy Chase Inn, the city’s oldest bar, for more than 40 years. He died July 21 and the bar is planning to celebrate his life 11 a.m. Aug. 19 with a chili dog potluck and Bloody Marys.
And with a special dedication: A Little Free Library that looks just like the popular local bar.
“He was a huge reader,” said Kevin Heathcoat, co-owner of the bar on Euclid. Salyer especially loved history.
The event is also a fundraiser for the Friends of the Lexington Public Library. The used bookstore in the basement of the downtown public library “was his local bookstore. He would go there a couple times a month to buy his books and donate back ones he had already read,” Heathcoat said. “He and his regulars had the ‘CCI Library’ in the back of the bar for years. It was a shelf where they would put their old books and trade books back and forth.”
Salyer also was a kind of “bonus grandfather” for the Heathcoat children, teaching them how to play pinball on Saturday mornings.
And when daughter Stella Heathcoat, then a fifth grader at Providence Montessori School, had to make a school project last year she knew what she wanted to build.
“Once we decided on a Little Free Library, we decided on the bar,” Stella said. “Because of Russell. We knew he was dying and we decided what better way to honor him than to make it look like the bar.”
With the help of some of the bar regulars, Stella built a Little Free Library that looks like a miniature Chevy Chase Inn.
“We had many talks about how his life was coming to an end and this is how she wanted to honor his legacy,” Heathcoat said.
Stella Heathcoat said it took her about six weeks to build the replica library, including the sanding, the staining and the painting. Another friend of Salyer’s, bar regular Norm Drury, helped them cut out pieces. His wife, artist Carol Drury, recently put on finishing touches including a tiny sign.
The teachers at her school were a bit surprised at the end of the year showcase, she said. “Everybody else built, like, dog houses or they learned to sew,” Stella said. “And I built a bar.”
She had intended to show Salyer the final replica version but he died in July. After the service this weekend they will set up “Redeye’s Little Library” permanently outside the bar Salyer called a second home for many years.
“I think it will be cool to see it full of books,” Stella said.
