Marathon Man

Thanks for talking to Mr. Dorris love to meet him and for the city Directory ,The spruce st is now called 9th ave .Will be at Hershey next week may be able to meet Mr. Dorris if he is going to be there at the HCCA tent! I alway have a orange vest on ever year looking for anything marathon on it! Give me a yell.

some of the machines from ellis machine shop !The shop was packed full of machines of all kinds . and they said they never got rid of anything .The iron scraping company sold a lot to collectors and museums for 4 mouths and scraped the rest .I was lucky to get a lot and it was cheap and later .14 cents per pound.

I just purchased the cast-iron and 12 ft doors store front of the 1800s Ellis machine shop and tons of pre- 1914 machines in memphis Tenn in the last 3mouths most have been sandblasted primed and painted and polished and clear coat and have install in the halls of the marathon factory . we finished up installing 240ft of lineshaft and hooked up most the belts to the machines .The plan with the machine shop front is to build a new shop using old bricks and to ellis front on it on a lot I have in the village 2 story will look like the shop does now. They are going to demo the old shop in the next mouth or so ,made a deal with the demo company hope the don't break up the cast-iron columns.

Wow, Great photo ! would love to find better photos of the nashville Dorris building that new are trying to move .I don't know anything about that photo it could have been added to the garage they were other building on the right side . Thanks a lot for the photo will blow it up and put on the wall.

some moving projects !

Thanks for all the post . they can move a brick building with or without concrete floor has to be a lot of tuck pointing all the brick inside and out and have to block up all the windows for support then reinstall windows later. I have been working with them on moving a 8000st stone and brick home in the last year to marathon. the company that do this has moved lighthouses and 8 story building in new york is sounds crazy but they do it all the time .Did talk to the developers it does not work in there plan but will give money on cost of demo and hauling to dump $ 50,000 to $ 100.000 .so running the rent rate with the cost of moving and cons cost is a 3 to 4 year return on the investment based on the sq ft. The city did not know anything about the historical significance until 3 weeks ago, And yes mike wolf has his store at marathon village we have been long time friends 18 years ago. WE have lost so many old car factory and dealerships and old car garages in the last 10 years and try to think out of the box to save them .Back in 1986 Was 28years old and purchased the old marathon administration building and then 1992 to 1994 the marathon factory .in the hood the most dangerous part of nashville .every one said I was crazy to do that and going to go broke and get killed . 31 years later and 225000st restored and working out great.. ck out marathon village .com . The route we plan to take is all clear only 3 traffic lights with swing arms .most the time it is to many phone-power-fiber -lines and cost is to much to move .Alot of city will do it for free in some cases.

The original Dorris garage and think to be the 1st car dealers in the south is standing today and inside and out side looks like it did back in the late 1800s,.in nashville tennessee .But is to be demo for big new development .So I have been talking to city councilman and the historical commission to save the building.The plan is to move it half a mile away to marathon village it is a old car factory I have restored ,so what do you think .The company was surprisingly affordable .I have worked on other projects with movers .The building is all brick with all roof skylights and just a very cool building .The Dorris brothers designed and manufactured the first Dorris car there plus a lot more .Barry Walker