Every historic building has a story to tell
Institutions, in my experience, are not the best stewards of historic buildings. So it comes as no surprise to learn that Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) in Richmond, Kentucky, is preparing to demolish a house once lauded as one of “Richmond’s best examples of Italianate-style architecture.”* And the late 19th century brick house, with its (read more)
Categories: Demolition, Madison County
Tags: demolition by neglect, Eastern Kentucky University, J. Stone Walker House
The Second Empire style, with its distinctive mansard roof, is not a common architectural style in the Bluegrass State. When I spot an example in my travels around Kentucky, I tend to remember. News of the demolition of an eye-catching Second Empire house in Richmond, Kentucky, reached me over a week ago – a house (read more)
Categories: Demolition, Madison County
Tags: demolition by neglect, Richmond Kentucky, Richmond Register, Scooby Doo House
In the mid-19th century, it became popular in rural America for farmers of a certain class to name their farms – usually with evocatively pastoral names – sometimes referencing landscape elements found at the site. The Cedars, Elmwood, Mt. Pleasant: all names of Bluegrass farms that crop up often. Hedgeland, though, is not one I’ve (read more)
Whenever I am asked to talk about historic architecture, I always stress the meaning of the facade of a building. It doesn’t matter whether it is a house or a store, the facade is the face of the structure, and it is there that the most care, attention, and money is typically spent. The facade (read more)
The American Revolution was not only a political liberation, but a cultural one too – and I think the best way to visualize that cultural revolution is to look at the architecture produced in this country during the 19th century. The classical world was put on a pedestal, and one of the styles to emerge (read more)
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