'A really special place': Joe Ley Antiques estate goes up for auction. Here's what to know

Sheila Ley remembers her father, Joe Ley, as "The Walt Disney of Antiques."

His shop at 615 E. Market St., housed perhaps Louisville's most eclectic and famous collection of antiques and oddities. Now part of that collection is going up for auction this week.

The longtime NuLu business owner was a treasure in this community and this week ― three years after his three-story-schoolhouse-turned-antique shop closed ― his fans have a chance to buy from his mass assortment of local history and memorabilia, again. Ley, 79, died in June from kidney failure, which was a complication of cancer, his daughter said. The family didn't publicize his death and held his burial without pomp and circumstance because those were Ley's wishes.

Ley was an undeniable institution in Louisville and his store was loved by locals and drew in people from all over the country. The online auction for Ley's estate began at 1 p.m. on Oct. 19 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.

Even after the liquidation sale in 2019, there was still enough of the collection left to fill 35 storage units, his daughter said. She spent another 18 months after the shop closed emptying out the building for the next owner, and she's not sure how many auctions it will take to sell off her father's legacy.

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 available to buy 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. The estate auction includes a wide selection of memorabilia from Louisville's Fontaine Ferry Park such as a cast aluminum horse and jockey figurines as well as roller skates and a carrying case.

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Ley's passion for Louisville history started with Fontaine Ferry Park, which was an amusement park on the edge of Louisville's Shawnee Park that closed in the 1960s after the race riots. Ley grew up as an orphan and as a child, he couldn't afford the nickel to get inside, his daughter said. Her father often looked through the hole in the park's fence and swore that one day he'd have a piece of Fontaine Ferry.

The park closed before he could ever afford to go, so instead, he started collecting memorabilia from it. That grew into collecting other nostalgic business signs, and eventually, he became the supplier and decorator for major national restaurant chains such as TGI Friday's and Houlihan's.

"You can come from nothing and be something, and he’s a perfect example of that," his daughter said.

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 homelessnessin 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."

His daughter, who worked side-by-side with him for nearly 50 years, recalled hiring security to escort customers to their cars when they first opened on East Market Street. Her father clung to the potential, though.

"It was just not a place that you would go to," his daughter said. "He was a visionary, and he could see it when other people couldn’t."

He was the first business owner in NuLu to commission a mural on the side of his building, she remembered. The design, which features two rainbow robots, seemed borderline absurd to her at the time, but really, it had just as much personality as Ley did.

More than 30 years later, NuLu has grown into a booming destination for retail shops, hotels, and restaurants. Now there are so many buildings covered in equally imaginative murals that the neighborhood itself has become a work of art. That wasn't the case 30 years ago, and it was Ley's vision and his customers' enthusiasm about it that helped propel the whole neighborhood forward.

"Everybody, who set foot in that front door, was part of our story, and I want them to know how grateful we were," his daughter said. "We would have been nothing without the customers, and we cannot thank them enough."

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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 Louisville Courier Journal: Joe Ley Antiques owner dies, estate auction scheduled for October