BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — On Tuesday of last week the LaFayette Historic Preservation Board met at the ALFA building for the approval of signage for a new interior decorating shop named Sparrow Home Décor.
In attendance was store owner Djuna Sanders, Mayor Kenneth Vines and LaFayette Main Street Executive Director Deanna Hand. Board Chairman Ed Yeargan called the meeting to order and Street, Sanitation and Cemetery Superintendent George Green who serves as the city of LaFayette building inspector began by addressing the attendees.
“We received an application for a petition of variance on a sign in the historic district,” Green said. “Normally when a sign goes up, just to bring everybody up to speed on it, in the historic district it has to be brought up for review by the historic board. We received this application on June 3, 2025, [and] I did go up and talk to Ms. Sanders. [We] walked around. She identified where she was going to put the sign. It will be a hanging sign; it is only two and a half by three feet. It stays up under the amount of total square footage. She did discuss that she won’t have too much stuff on the door, it will just be opening hours and closing hours.”
Council Member David Ennis, who is a member of the board, requested clarification as to whether the board was considering an actual variance. Green reassured him that the language used was merely the title of the form for the application used in the situations where a sign needs to be approved.
Yeargan asked if the sign would be placed high enough from the ground so that there would be adequate clearance underneath it. Green answered it would have more than enough space below. Considering whether the sign should be mounted to the exterior of the structure itself so that it would maintain consistency with the sign on the neighboring barber shop was another concern that Yeargan raised.
Hand explained that adhering the sign to the building exterior could present structural safety issues and that the proposed hanging approach would be far more suitable in this case.
There was a motion to approve the sign application which was then seconded and approved by a vote.
After the meeting was adjourned, Sanders mentioned that she is opening the new shop after a year of operating a vendor booth at Timeless Antiques and Flea Mall in Valley which she said has been a truly inspirational experience for her.
Sanders said she looks forward to assisting her customers with beautifying their interior spaces so everyone can enjoy feeling even better on the inside with a focus on the highly popular shabby chic style. She said “LaFayette captured her heart and caught her eye as a charming downtown area that brought back warm memories of growing up in her hometown of Eufaula.”
