Every historic building has a story to tell
When was the last time you stopped for gas and admired the architecture of the gas station? Not highly likely these days – but early gas and service stations celebrated the allure of car culture and popular culture (including trending architectural styles). The former Pure Oil Station, built circa 1926, in downtown Paris, Kentucky, is (read more)
Category: Bourbon County
Tags: Adaptive reuse, Hopewell Museum, Pure Oil Gas Station, Tudor Revival
When I was in graduate school, I wrote a very bad paper about the changes wrought on one block of East Main Street. Every time I walk past what was once known as the “Ben Snyder Block,” I cringe at the memory of my poor research skills, lack of engagement with the assignment, and procrastination (read more)
On Friday, March 1, 1907, a “disastrous fire” tore through the Lawrenceburg Hotel and the Saloon of Mr. S.R. Howser, located within the hotel. The two-story frame building, built in 1881, was destroyed by the blaze, causing more than $25,000 in losses. By 1908, however, a new, brick building, with stone accents, stood on the (read more)
Categories: Anderson County, Bourbon, Railroads
Tags: Adaptive reuse, Lawrenceburg Hotel, Lawrenceburg Kentucky, St. Asaph Hotel
The Lexington builder/architect John McMurtry, who popularized the Gothic Revival style in Kentucky, died in 1890. His surviving buildings include the house he designed in 1887 for his daughter, Anne, and her husband, Thomas B. Watkins. The late Italianate brick T-plan is a “fine and handsome example of the work of one of the major (read more)
I like to “collect” buildings by type, and the historic, small town bank is one I am always excited to find. Most are no longer in service, and many are crumbling. But a few sparkle with renewed life, and the Farmer’s Bank Building, now a cafe, is a bright spot for the community of Smiths (read more)
Place is very important to most Kentuckians. We identify ourselves not by where we live, but where we are from – or where “our people” are from. I may live and work in Lexington, but I am from Mt. Sterling, and I cheer on efforts in my hometown that make it a more interesting, inclusive, (read more)
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