Every historic building has a story to tell
Just north of the hamlet known as Olympia in Bath County, Kentucky, rests a frame church, built on piers, sliding back into the earth from which it came. I’m not sure of the last time that a congregation streamed either in or out of the double front doors, or that a bell rang from the (read more)
Categories: Abandoned Kentucky, Bath County, Churches, Kentucky churches
Tags: Olympia Kentucky, Olympian Springs
It will come to no surprise to anyone who knows me that one of my favorite magazines as a youngster was Old House Journal. At the back of the magazine was a regular feature called “Remuddling” – a photograph and some text about a historic house that through some well-meaning (or not) remodeling, was but (read more)
Categories: Graves County, Remuddling
Tag: remuddling
Prior to the Civil War, it is likely that 80 percent of all buildings constructed in Kentucky were log buildings – a number that seems staggering when you consider the survival rate of a log structure.* Urban log buildings are like unicorns: most long ago disappeared, as technology advanced, and towns grew and expanded. The (read more)
Categories: Garrard County, Log Houses
Tags: Arabia J. Brown, endangered historic building, log house
Woodford County is famed across Kentucky for its scenic landscapes, and its rural roads treasured by cyclists. Several months ago, I got a message from a Gardens to Gables reader about a curious historic house spotted by a bicyclist enjoying the area. The photograph prompted my curiosity as well – two door houses are a (read more)
Categories: Abandoned houses, Woodford County
This late winter and early spring has been a season of great joy and disruption – I watch my new garden taking shape, without the stress of moving, like last spring. And I ponder the possibilities that lie ahead with my career, as my program at the University of Kentucky was terminated by the Dean (read more)
Categories: Gardens, Kentucky Gardens
Tags: daffodils, Kentucky gardens
Although I often employ my smartphone to help me navigate unfamiliar places, when exploring Kentucky, I prefer to stick to my paper atlas…where miles of roads unfurl enticingly, place names dotted here and there. Which is how I ended up on the Kentucky/Tennessee line yesterday, searching for the community of Bugtussle. Apparently it was a (read more)
Categories: Kentucky Places, Monroe County
Tags: Beverly Hillbillies, Bugtussle
The original bathroom in our 1901 farmhouse bears little resemblance to what it must have looked like 118 years ago. Subsequent remodelings resulted in a laminate floor, no tub, and a toilet precariously perched on top of a step leading to the attic stairs (which is a challenge for a toddler just learning the life (read more)
Category: Kentucky architecture
Tags: Historic bathroom, home remodeling, old house bathrooms
Deconstruction of historic buildings – taking them down carefully in order that the materials may be reused, instead of ending up in a landfill – was described as a “relatively new concept” in the United States in the 1990s. Practiced mainly on the west coast, the “construction in reverse” process has gradually drifted eastward, with (read more)
There’s something about a mansard roof. The Addams Family house, in both the 1960s sitcom and movies – the Bates house/motel from Aldred Hitchcock’s Pyscho – and numerous representations in art, pop culture, and music (I was ecstatic when Vampire Weekend released “Mansard Roof” in 2007). The mansard roof (basically, a dual-hipped roof) is the (read more)
Category: Kentucky architecture
Tags: #mansardroof, #SecondEmpirestyle, mansard
Historic digitized newspapers are one of the great positives of the Internet age, and capable of diverting my attention for hours upon end. I’ve often chuckled over the name of a long-vanished Kentucky newspaper, The Spout Spring Times, which made its debut on January 18, 1896. To my delight, I found myself in that same (read more)
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