Kentucky Places: Athens, Fayette County

Athens is a fairly quiet place these days. Not the Athens of the ancient world, mind you, but the one with the long A sound at the beginning, situated in southeastern Fayette County, Kentucky. First settled as Cross Plains in 1783, the crossroads town grew up at the intersection of two buffalo traces, later to become Athens-Boonesboro Road and Cleveland Pike.

The residents of Cross Plains petitioned the Kentucky legislature for a charter in 1825 renaming their community “Athens,” and drawing up a plat. Why that name? Theories abound, but none are clear-cut.

One story is that the town’s unsavory reputation for lawlessness prompted the name change, but choosing the name of one of the world’s oldest cities and then choosing to pronounce it in such a way that people look at you strangely (people not from around here, that is…), that has no explanation.

A fire in 1853-54 destroyed much of the core of Athens, leveling a hotel, at least three stores,and several dwellings.

The post office, always the life blood of any rural community, was established in 1826, and remained open until 1909.

Athens was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, but that designation couldn’t protect one of the oldest buildings in the town from obliteration. The Dr. Parker House (picture below) was an early log dwelling with a frame addition, located on lot #2 of the 1826 plat of Athens.

At least two historic log dwellings remain, however, including one currently for sale (pictured below) and marketed by the Kentucky Trust for Historic Preservation.

I found another log and frame house as I was driving out of Athens, and did a quick U-turn with my hazard lights on to capture a furtive photo.

The former Athens School (built in stages from 1912 to 1926) is now home to the Athens Schoolhouse Antiques Show, but that brick building is located on the outskirts of the historic district.

I would love to see one of the two remaining corner commercial buildings in Athens re-purposed to draw more visitors to the rural hamlet, just east of the busy I-75 corridor. And then perhaps this little slice of “Athens of the West” could draw more visitors than some of the – (ahem) attractions – at the interstate exit.