Every historic building has a story to tell
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)
I am more of a reader than a movie watcher. Circumstances conspired to move me in that direction: farm child, only four channels on our TV (and viewing time was restricted), and the influence of older siblings and parents, who, when not working, were reading. That said, I love the movies, and I especially adore (read more)
Categories: Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture, McCracken County, Theaters
Tags: Columbia Theatre, Paducah
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)
On a rainy, rather foggy March day a few years back, I was in the field, scoping out Casey County for a possible survey of historic buildings. It was not a day to wander about and take photographs – the typical two-lane Kentucky roads that hugged the creeks dipped perilously close to the rain-swollen waterways, (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Casey County, Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture, Log Houses, Vernacular
Tags: Casey County, log, timber-frame, William Clark Quantrill
Place is very important to most Kentuckians. We identify ourselves not by where we live, but where we are from – or where “our people” are from. I may live and work in Lexington, but I am from Mt. Sterling, and I cheer on efforts in my hometown that make it a more interesting, inclusive, (read more)
Kentucky is a state of geographic contradictions. The geographer John Fraser Hart commented that “few if any states have such enormous diversity within such small compass.” I see this as I venture from one side of the state to another – not only in our landscape, but in our buildings. Treasures are to be found (read more)
I imagine the phrase “revolutionary architecture” conjures up a myriad of differing images for people – or maybe just a blank stare. Architects willing to experiment with materials, form, and site have transformed both our cities and domestic spaces, but a progressive design is not always so palatable to its neighbors, or indeed, the occupants (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)
There’s few things more dangerous to an old house (or any structure) than water. As the heavens opened again a few minutes ago, and water plunged merrily from my overflowing gutters, I thought of how I used to watch the rain anxiously in my old house, as it tended to come through the porch roof. (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Historic Preservation, Kentucky, Kentucky architecture, Vernacular
Tags: abandoned, old houses, poetry
I learned this morning that a family friend passed away after a long illness. Terry White was a historian, a storyteller, and a wonderful man. A fixture of trips to Harrodsburg, my mother’s hometown, since I was a little girl, I relished our conversations then (he never talked to me like I was a child) (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Historic Preservation, Kentucky, Kentucky architecture, Mercer County, Vernacular
Tags: Harrodsburg, James Harrod, Mercer County
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