The small town of Millersburg in Bourbon County, Kentucky, suffered a dreadful blow Wednesday afternoon as a fire destroyed a block of historic commercial buildings.* The densely built block of the west side of Main Street between West 4th and West 5th Streets, containing impressive late 19th century brick buildings and one wonderful 20th century building that contained the Post Office, has been reduced to a smoldering ruin. The cause of the fire is still not known, but there were no fatalities.
Image of the aftermath of the fire. Photograph by Chelsea Jones, Reporter for @WKYT in Lexington, Kentucky. @ChelseaWkyt
Only three buildings on the block appear to have escaped complete devastation. The former Odd Fellows Hall is located at the corner of Main Street and West Fourth. It retains it s lovely double round arched window with a pedimented surround on the second story.
The former Odd Fellows Hall, photo circa 1985, still stands. Photograph by William G. Johnson from the NRHP files.
The Millersburg Market building (known as Bryans Block historically), a two-story, four bay wide brick building painted white with green trim (see photo below) still stands, as does its diminutive neighbor, the 1898 Miller Building, which is a narrow, two-bay brick building.
West side of Main Street, looking north. Photo 2013 from the author’s collection.
Among the lost buildings is the former Millersburg Opera House, a two-and-one-half story brick building that had cast iron storefronts made by McHouse and Lyon of Dayton, Ohio.
From the Friday, April 17, 1908 edition of the Bourbon News.
Built between 1891 and 1897, the once-handsome building had two stores on the first floor, and the Opera House was on the second story. A distinctive triangular parapet rose up at the roofline, above a pressed metal cornice. This building later housed an antique store and was auctioned off in 2020; the real estate company has additional photos of the building.
The Millersburg Opera House (blue arrow), circa 1985. Photograph by William G. Johnson, NRHP files.
The circa 1885 Miller’s Block, next door to the Opera House, was also lost. This handsome, two-story brick building was five bays wide, with a pressed metal cornice and circular attic vents. Like the opera house, it was built to accommodate two stores on the ground level, with residential space (apartments) on the second story.
The block, looking south. Circa 2013 image from the author’s collection.
Although I deeply regret I only have block views of this part of downtown Millersburg, I remember the first time I saw the post office building, which occupied the corner at West 5th Street. It was a great early 20th century addition to the downtown streetscape.
The Millersburg Post Office. Circa 2013 photo from the author’s collection.
The blond brick building stood two stories high, with a simple corbelled pediment at the cornice, and these gorgeous steel casement windows. And the sign – oh, that wonderful sign, with its stylistic homage to all things modern and Moderne. It was a beauty.
Detail of the Post Office sign. Circa 2013 photograph from the author’s collection.
Millersburg is the second largest town (population around 798 in 2020) in Bourbon County, and it prospered in the 19th century due to its location on Hinkston Creek and on the very busy Lexington-Maysville Road meant that business was good. The prosperity of the surrounding rich farmland was also an important factor in the town’s development.
The 400 block of Main Street in Millersburg in 1909. Section of the Sanborn Fire Insurance map.
When the Covington and Lexington Railroad arrived, it must have seemed that the town’s future was secured in perpetuity. The founding of Millersburg Military Institute (now Mustard Seed Hill), an elite military school in the early to mid-20th century, further cemented the continued good fortune of the small town.
The world changes quickly – and not just by fire. Who would have ever thought that railroads would cease being the lifeblood of America and that burley tobacco would fade from memory and the landscape so quickly? Small rural towns like Millersburg, stripped of their schools and local economy (why shop at a local corner store when you can wade in low prices and excessive merchandise at Wal-Mart?) are fading into oblivion across our country. When disasters don’t engulf the ghosts that remain, time and apathy step in to finish the job.
The 400 block of Main Street in 1920. Postcard by
Kraemer Art Co.,
Kentucky Historical Society, Ronald Morgan Kentucky Postcard Collection, Graphic 5.
I am a big fan of small towns and rural Kentucky – I am a product of both. And I hope that residents, and local and state agencies can help with the rebuilding of Millersburg – and that folks who want to see real Kentucky venture out into the hinterlands to explore the history of our Commonwealth still standing (historic downtowns) and still unpaved (our family farms) before more of either disappears.
*The fire began the afternoon of June 22, 2022.
Was this block of buildings part of the group that Bob Polsgrove’s group was trying to preserve….or was it the next block to the east? A real loss.
This was an excellent history and description done with feeling created on such short notice.
Thank you so much for your perfect summary, full of the illustrations I wanted to see. Wonderful work! I am saving this post in my files in print. I wanted very much to know what buildings were lost, and you told me. I did not know about the opera house!
I am a fan of small towns myself, but I don’t know how Millersburg can make anything out of this disaster. I can hope.
Tragic!! And but for your post it would have passed unnoticed. You should compile your posts into a book perhaps called “Notes on Kentucky Vernacular Architecture.” BUR are doing a book on KY architecture aren’t you?