Elements of an Abandoned Historic House, Casey County, Kentucky

I’ve been in my share of abandoned buildings. Some are so far gone, piled with debris and trash, that it is hard even for me to see a glimmer of the past, before the sliding, sad decline.  Yet other vacant buildings are merely fixed in time, and their individual elements speak to speak so clearly for voices long silenced. I rarely get the chance to truly investigate the history of most of these houses, so I thought I would share some photos of one of the more memorable examples.

Frame farmhouses, big and small, once were a common sight along Kentucky’s rural roads. Now many of these 19th and early 20th century dwellings have been replaced by mobile homes.

This particular house, blessed with a sturdy tin roof, stood in front of a mobile home from the 1970s on a country road in Casey County, Kentucky.

The two-story, weatherboard clad house was three bays wide, with a central entry door flanked by a window to either side. Daylilies clustered around the base of the front porch, which had chamfered porch posts, sawtooth trim and dentils, and lovely fanlike brackets.

The facade of the house was lavished with care and architectural elements, and it would have clearly made a statement when first built in the last quarter of the 19th century. The Italianate style was highly popular at the time, and the owner of this house was well aware of the trending architectural fashion.

While I found the exterior of the house delightful, it was the interior that really stirred my imagination. The plan was traditional – a central passage with one room to either side, so that the main part of the house was only one room deep.

Brick chimneys on either side of the hall (an Italianate style conceit, as it was more common for chimneys to be on the gable ends of houses) provided heat to the first and second floors.

While the plan was straightforward, I was struck by the grained woodwork  – imitation timber graining – inside the house. “Faux graining” woodwork consisted of several layers of paint on wood (doors, trim, etc.), with a darker layer of paint over a base coat, and then brushes and other tools (like metal combs or razors) were used to make the actual wood look like a completely different type of wood. Basically, cheap wood was painted to look like more expensive wood.

There wasn’t just one example of this faux graining, but several.

The level of finish on the second story wasn’t as high as on the first floor (basically, the private rooms had less fancy doors and woodwork) – painted batten doors were used in the bedrooms. The walls were clad in horizontal boards that had been painted or whitewashed.

I was able to document the bare facts of this house’s existence, and I haven’t been back since this survey. The house is more than likely gone, and all the secrets held within its wood and stone have gone with it.