Madison Journal - 1931 Arcade.

Date submitted: September 5, 2014

Submitted by: Richard P. Sevier

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MAX LEVY AND BLOOM DRUG CO. TO MOVE SOON
New Arcade Building Will Be Ready for Occupancy Shortly
Madison Journal February 6, 1931

Mertie M. Bloom of the Bloom Drug Company told a representative of the Journal this week that his 
company as well as Max Levy & Company will be located in their new building in the near future. 
He says workmen have been rushing the completion of these particular buildings so that these stores 
could be opened in them. Bloom Drug Company expects to begin moving about the latter part of this 
week and Max Levy & Company will be located in their new quarters in about ten days.

All fixtures in the Bloom Drug Store are new and are of inlaid walnut design, all fixtures being made 
to match. There will be two separate soda fountains and a luncheonette to serve both white and colored 
patrons. The fixtures and soda fountains are being set now and will be ready in a few days when moving 
will begin.

The Bloom Drug and the Max Levy building, like the main arcade, will have a terrazzo floor. This floor 
consists of chips of marble laid in concrete in blocks of different color. After the concrete had been 
hardened, it was necessary to grind down the surface to a smoother surface in order to show the design. 
This operation required considerable time. Each store required about one week for this polishing process.

The Max Levy store will also be fitted with new fixtures, all built-in, so that stock will at all times 
be in plain view and easily accessible. Plans for the fixtures call for departments for the stock to be 
carried. Thus everything in the store will be found in its regular place. The fixtures are of modernistic 
design. Both stores open on Depot Street.

It will be some time yet before the main building is completed, but work is being rushed as rapidly 
as possible.

The theatre building which faces on Highway 80 will be ready to open about March 1. This theatre will 
be operated by R. L. Bailey, Sr., of Bunkie, Louisiana, who operates several theatres in other towns, 
some of them being Ferriday, Bunkie, Opelousas, Wisner, Oakdale and Minden. The capacity of the theatre 
will be around 680 with 500 downstairs. Cushion seats will be provided for the lower floor. The entire 
theatre is fireproof, and, like the other part of the structure, is fitted with automatic sprinklers. 
The building will be heated with gas and cooled with a Nu-Air Cooling System. The projection and sound 
equipment will be two new DeForest machines.

Mr. Bloom says that already about fifty percent of the floor space has been leased. The Standard Oil 
Company will operate the filling station on Highway 80. The filling station is constructed so that a 
fire wall separates it from the main part of the building. Also space has been leased to W. A. Dozier, 
Jeweler, of Oak Grove, La., for a pool room and barber shop to Wroten & Kelly. Space has also been 
leased for a restaurant and grocery. The jewelry store will he separate from the drug store and will 
open into the arcade.

The main arcade is eighteen feet wide and runs through the three hundred foot length of the building. 
It is provided with a terrazzo floor, a skylight roof and numerous lights for night. The entire building 
is caststone trimmed and face brick. A sprinkler system insures its whole area against fire and lowers 
the insurance rate so that it will be probably the lowest in town. We arc informed that the rate, on 
account of this system, was lowered from over six dollars per $100.00 to one dollar on the building 
and $1.26 on merchandise and fixtures. The sprinklers were installed by the Dixie Fire Protection Company 
of New Orleans, and every ten square feet of combustible material is provided with a sprinkler head. It 
is estimated, so we are told, that the saving in insurance premiums will pay for the sprinkler system 
in three years.

The building is being erected by Mertie M. Bloom and Abe Bloom, and space is provided for eighteen places 
of business including the filling station and theatre. Rest rooms for both white and colored are also provided. 
The contractor on the building was Tom Wilmoth of Camden, Ark., architect, W. M. Overstreet .of Jackson, Miss., 
Koenaman Electric Company of Jackson, Miss., handled the electric work, and the plumbing was done by 
A. C. Campbell of Monroe, La. Fixtures for the drug store and Max Levy & Company were manufactured by Westbrook 
Manufacturing Company of Jackson, Miss., and the fountains were made by the Liquid Carbonic Company of Chicago.

Mr. Mertie Bloom told a representative of the Journal that neither the Bloom Drug Company nor the Max Levy 
Company will hold a formal opening until the whole building is completed and cleaned up and the street on the 
side between them and the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company is paved. At that time, he said, the formal opening 
for their stores and others ready for business will be held. A dance and other features are contemplated for 
the formal opening of which due announcement will be given the public with an invitation to attend.