What Do You Do With A Stale Donut?

A few years ago we began a list of local eyesores. Our intention was to limit the list to ten, and as one was (hopefully) corrected, insert another less than appealing sight. The first eyesore on our list was the Knight-Humphries donut on East Tennessee Street.

Knight-Humphries Building Showing Donut Sign Under "E."

The corner building now home to a local real estate company has been occupied by many businesses over the years, and while we are only guesstimating, we believe the donut shop was in business in the 1960s. The Florence sign ordinance was adopted in the early to mid 1970s.

The building was home to Trailways after the donut makers folded their aprons and drove into the sunset. It's possible there have been others forgotten over the years. Now we've been contacted by a representative of Knight-Humphries who believes the City of Florence owns the sign. Why?

The sign does appear to be on the city's right-of-way and, if so, was placed their illegally; however, the owners of the donut shop obviously paid for the sign (at least we hope the City of Florence didn't) and it would have been transferred to each subsequent owner.

We've contacted Dick Jordan, the councilman for the downtown area, to get his take on the best way to remove the sign. Should taxpayers pay for having it removed when it does belong to Knight-Humphries, but is on the city ROW?

Feel free to offer your takes on this, and we'll publish them.



Shoalanda