By Angus Lind, Staff writer/The Times-Picayune

It wasn't black gold as in oil, or Black Gold as in the legendary horse that in 1924 won both the Louisiana Derby and the Kentucky Derby, but it might has well have been.

Because what Robert Thompson discovered behind five layers of wallboard, paneling and wallpaper on the structure that he and his wife, Elizabeth, have renovated was the perfect payoff for their project.

Like a hidden treasure found in the attic, underneath the "improvements" through the years was a large mural of a horse race painted on beaded board on one wall, and on another wall the traditional winner's circle picture of a horse's head surrounded by a horseshoe.

In the shadow of the Fair Grounds Race Course on Ponce de Leon near Esplanade Avenue in Gentilly, the Thompsons have opened the Fair Grinds Coffeehouse, restoring this turn-of-the century structure to its former ambiance as a rough-and-tumble horse racing bar and bookie joint in the 1940s and '50s, while adding 21st century coffee brewing equipment.

"The walls tell the story," said Robert. On one wall, where there once was a pay phone, written on the woodwork is: "UNITED: JA 2-9771." Upstairs, in the wall, they found six phone lines. No, not for telemarketers. Bookmakers dwelt here.

"If you stand on a ladder in the back yard, especially in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees, you can see the (Fair Grounds) finish line with binoculars," he said.

Through the years the building has housed, among other things, an Italian grocery, a clothing emporium, coffee houses and taverns named the Dixie House Bar, Della's Bar, the Golden Filly and, say some, the Daily Double Lounge.

"We've heard a thousand rumors about this place, all real sordid," Elizabeth said.

One is about a country girl who came to town for a career in the Quarter and found a sugar daddy who bought this place for her. Another is about a trainer who boasted of the winnings he wasn't going to tell his lover about, only she found out and shot him dead right there. And then there was the one about the guy who was beaten to death with pool cues and dragged over to Doris Buscher's house next door. Buscher has lived in the neighborhood since 1947 and is the anointed "Mayor of Ponce de Leon."

Thankfully, that was then and this is now and the crowd the Fair Grinds is going to attract will be somewhat different.

"This is a very heterogeneous neighborhood," Robert Thompson said. Indeed, the area is home to a lot of creative folks: chefs, artists, writers, musicians, waiters. The Thompsons have a home in the neighborhood but the closest they've come to horse racing is attending Jazzfest.

Now, since they started renovating, they've met trainers, grooms and hotwalkers and are enjoying the diversity of people who will gather there for their Fair Trade coffee, gourmet pastries and ice cream.

A systems analyst at Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital, Thompson said he and his wife both have a love affair with old buildings and he always wanted to own some sort of business. When the building came available, they snapped it up, not even thinking what they'd do with it. So they polled the neighbors and they said they wanted their coffee house back.

It had been True Brew until a couple of years ago, when it was sold.

Renovating, he said, was right up his alley. "I sit at a desk all day and this was therapy for me, ripping things apart." He got some renovation assistance from Elmore Heary, and muralist Nick Crowell helped restore the winner's circle mural, which needed some TLC.

"The night he started demolishing," said his wife, "he came home around 11, just filthy, his eyes were bugging out and he had a big smile on his face."

He told her: "There are murals back there."

Which was fortunate, because it was a big demolition job and if he had ripped out one too many walls and they had to rebuild one, well, "The name might not have been the Fair Grinds -- it might have been Grounds for Divorce," he joked.

On the ceiling are eye-catching belt-driven ceiling fans, based on an old 1890s patent, similar to the fans that once adorned Kolb's restaurant. But the most striking feature of the Fair Grinds, aside from the murals, might be the chair art.

The seed for the chair art was planted when a neighborhood artisan named Skinner the Artist painted a chair for the neighborhood florist. Then Skinner started doing a couple of chairs for the Fair Grinds and the word got out. Other artists heard about the project and asked if they could join in.

Thirty-six chairs were purchased from Zack's Unfinished Furniture on Metairie Road and Elizabeth assembled them all. And they were in demand.

"It was all very egalitarian," said Elizabeth. "They all did it for $25 a chair and some of their stuff sells for hundreds and hundreds of dollars. But they all wanted a presence in the coffee house."

There were two rules: You had to be able to sit in it when it was finished and the artist had to sign it.

A sampling: John Schwartz, art teacher at Metairie Park Country Day School, painted a Fair Grounds horse-racing scene on his chair. Wife Carrie Schwartz depicted the harvesting of tea and coffee beans. Kate Gundersen gave her chair a Mexican primitive look. William McInnis painted the Fair Grinds building on his. Kelly Israel did beaded chairs. Judy Gale did "Priscilla Pianomouth," a wacky woman with a keyboard for her teeth.

Nancy Gervais did "Cats of New Orleans," Walter, Rex and Cathy. And Patt Richardson was the only one to do a high chair, since there are babies in the neighborhood. To make sure those who sit in it are properly exposed, she painted Fair Grounds mutuel tickets on the eating tray.