The Exchange Building was constructed in 1910, making it 98 years old; a place that has certainly stood the test of time especially considering its location. This building is in walking distance to the infamous Peabody Hotel and Beale Street that is home to W.C. Handy, B.B King, and Louis Armstrong among many others. The Lorraine Hotel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated is just a few blocks beyond that. Three blocks to the west is the Mississippi River. A few blocks north and east are many notable landmarks from the Civil War Era as well as the Civil Rights Movement. The bricks of this building have seen it all.
Being Sunday and a nice day I woke up early and planned my day over breakfast. I was going to do my laundry and housework in the morning/early afternoon and then go to campus to finish schoolwork and go to the gym. In my many trips to the 19th floor laundry room there was this peculiar smell. Every time someone got on to the elevator they would ask, “Doesn’t it smell like something is burning?” I responded, “Sure does, I’m just hoping someone burnt breakfast.”
Thirty minutes goes by and the smell keeps getting stronger and stronger most notably in the elevator shafts. As I’m getting my dryer sheets to go upstairs, I hear this army of fire trucks. It didn’t seem to faze me seeing how I only live a couple blocks from the Engine 5 firehouse and they go out all of the time. This time the sirens didn’t dissipate into the wind. Weird I thought. I took the elevator up to the 19th floor to finish my laundry.
As I was putting my clothes in the dryer I saw all these firemen running around and into the building with their fire hoses. Certainly if we needed to evacuate they would sound the alarms. Before the thought even finished in my mind the alarms sounded with the nice public service announcement that the elevators were no longer in service. You have got to be kidding me I thought. After a pause I snapped back into reality and started down the stairs.
When I got to the fourteenth floor I stopped off to my apartment to grab my tennis shoes. Maybe not the smartest move; however, there was no way I was going to make it 14 more flights of stairs in old flip-flops. I changed my shoes and kept running. I was winded and my legs burned and that is when I looked behind me and saw two mothers carrying their toddler children. All of a sudden my legs didn’t hurt that bad and I kept going.
After nearly an hour outside we were told we could go back in. There are 202 units and certainly not that many people were outside. More so I know there are at least a half dozen handicapped people in the building and I only saw two of them. I am still not sure what the smell was or why the firemen sounded the alarms. Altogether it was a minor scare, a lot of exercise, and a valuable lesson learned. Even though the building has stood the test of time, you have horrible luck so go get some renters insurance.
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