Every historic building has a story to tell
A valuable piece of Lexington history was lost earlier this year when 504 and 506 Euclid Avenue were demolished. I was able to photograph 506 Euclid (and its tiny addition, 506 1/2) before it was felled, but I have few photos of 504 Euclid Avenue, once home (from 1938-1991) to Brooking’s Restaurant, famed for their (read more)
Dr. Zirl Palmer’s Pharmacy at the corner of East Fifth and Chestnut Streets, most recently the home of the Catholic Action Center, is a building significant for the role it played in segregated Lexington, and for its design – but neither attribute will save it from demolition. Lexington doesn’t have the best record for valuing (read more)
The Lexington builder/architect John McMurtry, who popularized the Gothic Revival style in Kentucky, died in 1890. His surviving buildings include the house he designed in 1887 for his daughter, Anne, and her husband, Thomas B. Watkins. The late Italianate brick T-plan is a “fine and handsome example of the work of one of the major (read more)
The chain link fences have gone up, making visible the divide between what was and what shall be – from tired reminders of former neighborhoods to blank earth, littered by concrete and gravel. And with the demolition of these houses, one of the last vestiges of the Virginia Avenue neighborhood between South Limestone and South (read more)
Categories: Demolition, Fayette County, Historic architecture, Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture, Lexington Kentucky History, Lexington neighborhoods, Vernacular architecture
Tags: Adamstown, demolition, Lottie Street, Lottie Street Presbyterian Church, Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church, Porter Memorial Baptist Church, University of Kentucky, Virginia Avenue, W.S. Griffing
The ache that engulfs me when a historic building is needlessly demolished pales in comparison to the visceral pain of seeing farmland chopped, desecrated, and turned into to miles of pavement. Lexington provides the perfect backdrop to examine this transition, but occasionally a vestige of those long-ago pastures and fields can be found along a busy road (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Fayette County, Historic architecture, Historic Preservation, Kentucky, Kentucky architecture, Lexington, Lexington Kentucky History
Tags: Bluegrass Conservancy, C.F. McMeekin, Clays Mill Road, Country Estates of the Bluegrass, Fayette Alliance, land conservation, PDR, purchase of development rights, race horses, rural growth, thoroughbreds, Urban service boundary
It’s nearly impossible to stay abreast of all of the changes to Lexington’s historic neighborhoods – demolitions, new construction, and remodelings that transform (for better or worse) the exterior visage of a building – small, minute changes occur everyday that can slowly enhance or erode the character of a place. Dramatic change sometimes happens in (read more)
One of my favorite daydreams – and mental exercises – involves the possibility of time travel. Should I be hurtled back into Kentucky’s history, would I be able to find my way around, using landmarks to chart my path? I always wonder if I would recognize our family farm circa 1860 or so (I never go too far (read more)
Buildings, like people, evolve, grow, and even shrink. Of course, this cycle of change happens to buildings through the actions of people. Inaction, commonly referred to in its final phase as “demolition by neglect” also acts as an agent of change on a historic building. I’ve experienced my share of needless demolitions since entering the (read more)
I went to a lot of museums growing up – but the most compelling exhibits that lingered with me were the streets I traveled down, whether walking around my small hometown, or watching in rapt attention as a traveler in the backseat. One of those memories from the “backseat files” involves the grand historic houses (read more)
Science was not my strongest subject in school, but chlorophyll always fascinated me. In my mind’s eye, scores of thirsty plants absorbed the rays of the sun with zeal after winter’s gloom – nothing short of magic. Not unlike those plants, I too gravitate toward the light streaming from the sky this time of year. (read more)
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