The people have long forgotten, but the building itselfremembers.

Contractors working for downtown renovator and property traderJohnny Lynch recently discovered signs of the past when they torethe façade from his next project, the renovation of the old BargainCenter building near Kees Motors on Cherokee Street. When the metalawning and canopy came crashing down, behind it were hidden signsadvertising a trio of business from Brookhaven’s downtownhistory.

“I was happy to see them,” Lynch said. “I probably won’t keepthem just because it’s a little confusing over what business willbe in there, just because I don’t know what business will be inthere.”

Framed against dark spotty bricks and painted in large brightcolors, the signs advertise the Army-Navy Surplus Bargain Center,Quality Cleaners and Redd Pest Control, businesses that have longsince slipped into history. The Army-Navy sign is painted in sternblues and reds with yellow accenting to give dimension to thewords, while the Quality Cleaners logo has depth in two shades ofclean, with a cursive aside that advertises, “qualitycleaning.”

The Redd Pest Control sign is most interesting, with thecaricature of a smiling, Charlie Brown-faced Indian in loinclothand headdress of many feathers, standing before a row if simpleteepees. It displays the numbers “2788,” harkening back to a timewhen the phone system’s prefixes were composed of only onecombination.

The building was built sometime during the 1940s and for threegenerations has been owned by the Richardson and Johnston families,descendant from the Redd family.

“It’s just kind of been a family thing,” said Brookhaven’s JoannRichardson. “The family has had a business in there since 1957. Itmay have a change a little bit, but the same family has ownedit.”

Richardson’s father, Parson Redd, began renting half thebuilding in 1957 from Estes Nations, who ran Quality Cleaners inthe same location. Redd purchased the inventory of the Army-Navystore from a surplus business in Memphis and opened shop.

While no office was located there, Redd installed a phone andanswered it for Redd Pest Control, owned by a relative.

Redd ran the store for several years until he couldn’t go onalone. He called in his son-in-law, Bogue Chitto’s Elwin Johnston,86.

“He had retina problems… he went just almost totally blind,”Johnston said. “I was manager of National Food Source at the time,and he told me one day, said, ‘Elwin, if you’ll come over and helpme with the store, I’ll give the same money you make in the grocerybusiness.'”

Johnston went to work for Redd at the surplus store, which soonbecame a paint store, where Johnston’s wife, Christine, became thecity’s best paint-mixer. They installed the metal façade for thebusiness’s rebirth.

“We had all the painting business just about in Brookhaven,”Johnston said. “Christine was very good at matching colors, waybefore those computers came out that could match them for you. Shesaid they were a mess.”

Around 1990, the building switched sides of the family againwhen Gary Richardson, Joann Richardson’s son, bought the buildingfrom the Johnstons. Gary and his wife, Donna, ran a sporting goodsbusiness in the building for 15 years before closing down in2005.

The building has been vacant ever since. But more than 50 yearsof family business came back to life a few days ago when the metalfaçade was removed and the signs saw the light again.

“It was beautiful,” Gary Richardson said. “We were all shocked.My mother acted like she didn’t even remember then, and she wasprobably around there a lot more when they were there.”

The old Bargain Center’s future is unclear. Lynch is lookinginto the possibility of converting it into a climate-controlledstorage facility, but downtown zoning does not allow such abusiness. A public hearing to amend the ordinance is scheduled for5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 24.