News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Baxter’s historic Sewell building is days away from opening under a new name: The Monarch.
Owner Kellie Fitzpatrick said the 100-year-old building will serve as an event space for weddings and corporate events.
“It’s a beautiful building, it’s one of the few remaining larger historic buildings maybe not in all the Upper Cumberland, but certainly in Baxter,” Fitzpatrick said. “I just wanted to keep it around and turn it something useful, and beautiful, and preserve some of our Baxter history.”
Fitzpatrick said she remembers going to the Sewell building as a child to get snacks with her mother for the Babe Ruth baseball concession stand. The building was originally Anderson Mercantile and Hardware Store in the 1920’s. When it became the Sewell building, it was a grocery store until it closed. Fitzpatrick said the city purchased the building for storage space after that.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with it, I just knew I wanted to do something with it,” Fitzpatrick said. “My husband and I purchased it at auction a couple of years ago, and then it kind of sat and we didn’t do anything with it for a while. I was a teacher originally and then I did wedding photography, and so that kinda inspired my idea for a wedding venue.”
She said each of the two main halls has a 300-person capacity in the 16,000 square foot facility. With so many outdoor traditional venues, Fitzpatrick said she wanted to provide something new with a 1920’s industrial style.
“That was the design aesthetic that we decided to adopt with the development,” Fitzpatrick said. “1920’s industrial mixed with 1920’s glam is the vibe happening inside.”
Fitzpatrick said she hopes to host an open house event when the governor’s safety mandate is lifted.
