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By John SchlippSpecial to NKyTribune
Nearly a century ago, the corner of Eighth Street and Madison Avenue buzzed with excitement as a new Montgomery Ward department store opened its doors in Covington on August 17, 1929, just months before the Wall Street stock market crash.
Similar in design to numerous Ward’s neoclassical facades constructed nationwide in the late 1920s, these buildings were among the earliest “place-product-packaging” examples of modern chain retailers. That is, the stores shared a recognizable logo and building style, including a terra cotta torch-bearing “Spirit of Progress,” the icon of Montgomery Ward…