Every historic building has a story to tell
My trips across Kentucky require no skill greater than the ability to drive, navigate, and gawk out the window, looking for a building with a story. Sometimes, it is a place with a story, like the small community of Arthurmabel in southern Magoffin County, Kentucky. The old store was what caught my eye – and (read more)
It’s been years since anxiety gripped me about getting lost in Kentucky. Back when I succumbed to those fears, it was my driving skills that should have caused nervousness, not the likelihood that a wrong turn would result in me getting hopelessly lost for days. County roads meander like a crop of morning glories across (read more)
The familiar landscape is the one that often receives the least notice. But when that landscape changes, the disorientation strikes with ferocity, and a palpable sense of loss. For all my love of crossroad communities – places not quite a town, grown organically at the intersection of two roads – the one closest to me (read more)
Categories: Clark County, Country Store, Crossroad communities, Kentucky architecture, Vernacular
Tags: Clark County, Crump, Dykes, Sewell Shop
Roads are curious thing – and in Kentucky, they are big business. A new road delivers up promises of jobs and economic development; sometimes the premise for a project seems to be nothing more than “if you build it, they will come.” A road also takes away – a new road bypasses a community (this (read more)
When I talk to people about vernacular architecture, I catch myself comparing it to messy but delicious experiments in the kitchen, or unexpected adventures, or exploring a brand new place. Sometimes, you might cook up some comfort food. Or you could create something brand new. Local builders took familiar ways of buildings, house plans they (read more)
There are as many origin stories about the names of Kentucky’s small towns and crossroad communities as there are these spots on the map. Sometimes the postmaster (or postmistress) got to choose the name. Perhaps a nearby industry inspired the name of a place, or a popular elected officials. I had a wonderful cousin named (read more)
My great-great-great-grandfather’s farm, originally christened “Mt. Pleasant” in the early 19th century, was renamed “Klondike” in the late-19th century, when one of his grandchildren headed to Alaska with dreams of striking it rich in the Klondike goldfields. We have a box of crumbling letters he wrote home to his mother, assuring her of his good (read more)
Although I would never willingly repeat high school again, there are some wrinkled, furtive wisps of memory I wish I could chase down. You look at the world differently as a teenager (beyond the hormones and the belief in one’s immortality) and I passed by so many enchanting landscapes and fascinating buildings with nary a (read more)
There are some abandoned buildings I’ve sadly grown used to seeing: houses, barns, stores, and old garages. Our crossroads communities across Kentucky boast these types by the hundreds (if not the thousands). For some reason, though, I encounter abandoned bank buildings less frequently. And I’m always surprised when I do. Banks exude an air of (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Crossroad communities, Kentucky architecture, Nicholas County, Vernacular
Tags: abandoned, banks, Moorefield, Nicholas County
Anonymity comes easy these days. Shopping on the internet is easy and hassle free, and even in brick and mortar stores, the need for actual human contact can be minimal. Although there are times I am relieved to not see anyone I know when I dash out for an errand, the sense of community that (read more)
Categories: Country Store, Crossroad communities, Kentucky architecture, Vernacular, Warren County
Tags: Bowling Green, Motley, Thomas Clark, Warren County
Interested in a specific topic? Check out some popular categories below, or enter your search terms in the box.