Every historic building has a story to tell
Shortly after Christmas 1901, a news article pondered whether Kentucky’s legislators would finally “erect at Frankfort buildings which will be a credit, instead of a disgrace, to Kentucky.” The State Capitol Building was criticized as too small (among other faults), and the Governor’s mansion had been severely damaged by fire in 1899.* Lexington and Louisville (read more)
Category: Franklin County
Tags: #frankfortky, #kentuckycapitol, #kentuckygovernorsmansion
Yesterday was a good day for a drive, and as I meandered through rural Bourbon County, I came upon a building that compelled me to immediately stop. (This happens frequently to me.) As it was at the intersection of two roads, I interpreted it as a former store of a crossroads community. A bit more (read more)
Category: Bourbon County
Tags: #bourboncountyky, #plum, #ruralcrossroads
The New Year in 1923 was still fresh when newspapers across the world began sharing stories and images of the treasures “recovered” from the tomb of King Tutankhamun in Egypt. The mysteries and wonders of the boy pharaoh’s tomb, discovered by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, filled newspapers, motion picture news-reels, magazines, and the imagination (read more)
Category: Kenton County
Tags: #egyptianrevival, #ludlowky, #ludlowlagoon
I grew up hearing stories about my paternal grandfather, a native of Bath County, Kentucky ,and the weekly trips he made back home to enjoy the “sweet air” of his home county. Years later, on my first county wide survey as an architectural historian, I spent weeks savoring that sweet air as I helped document (read more)
Category: Bath County
Tags: #kentuckyarchitecture, #nationalregisterofhistoricplaces, #sharpsburgky
Described as a “practical and popular three bedroom home,” this 1.5 story house is compact and so familiar looking – I feel as though I have passed it in neighborhoods across the country. But one important element that I would not have realized from the exterior is that this house – if it followed the (read more)
Category: Historic House Plans
The Christmas holiday season is quickly approaching (according to some radio stations and big box stores, the season began well before Halloween), and I love to feature historic buildings decked for the season. When it’s cold and gray, my spirits are lifted to see a gracious fanlight strewn with lights, or greenery festooning a porch (read more)
Category: Christmas
Tags: #christmasdecorations, #christmasdoors, #kentuckyarchitecture, Christmas
While traveling home from the beach last month, we spent a nervous half hour frantically trying to find a hotel room off of I-65 in Alabama. It was a Saturday night and traffic proved a nightmare – a nightmare which would balloon into epic proportions if two adults and two small children had to spend (read more)
Category: Ballard County
Tags: #historicarchitecture, #historichotel, #hotel, #kentuckyarchitecture, #wickliffeky
Someone once asked me how I find all of the historic buildings I share via this blog and social media. The easy answer is that wherever I am, I find the middle of town – the courthouse square and historic district – and explore out from that point. The best way is to walk, but (read more)
Category: Knox County
Tags: #barbourvilleky, #historichouse, #kentuckyarchitecture
Last Thursday, October 13, 2022, the former Olympia Christian Church in Olympia, Kentucky, collapsed. It’s been decades since hymns rang out in its sanctuary, or celebrations spilled forth from its double entry doors. Now it belongs to memory. I wrote about the church in a blog post in June 2019, when vines snaked up the (read more)
Categories: Bath County, Churches
Tags: #historicchurch, #kentuckyarchitecture, #olympiaKY, #ruralchurchesofkentucky, abandoned
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 (read more)
Categories: Abandoned houses, Casey County
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