This post serves as a confession. Yes . . . I spy on my neighbors! Before you get excited and envision me hiding in bushes looking through windows; it is nothing like that. Instead I simply like to know who lives in a certain house, how many acres are in their farm, or what a house down a long driveway might look like. One resource that has long-satisfied this inquiry is the website of the Warren County Property Valuation Administrator (PVA). Recently, while looking up some sort of useless knowledge on a cold winter’s night I came across the following message in bold letters at the top of the search screen: “As newly elected PVA of Warren County, Kentucky, I am pleased to announce that I have successfully fulfilled a promise to transition the official PVA website, to a free platform. Thank you for your support in making this possible.” Several hours later I was still pouring through scanned PVA cards, dating back 50 years, property by property, on a stretch of road and in a neighborhood I thought I had known intimately for 40 years.
This residence once existed at 936 Shive Lane and the property is now home to Countryside Mobile Home Park. Photo circa 1955-1960.
Without going into great depth, the PVA serves as a constitutionally elected officer in the Commonwealth of Kentucky whose duty is to establish taxable values on real property. Although not tasked with tax collection (this duty is held by Kentucky’s elected Sheriffs), the PVA does hold great power by acting as the official assessor in their county of election.
The PVA card associated with 936 Shive Lane.
In the days before computers and digital information were widely in use, the PVA and staff kept cards showing many important details of the structures and property under assessment. These cards, much like a library card-catalog, were cataloged by parcel number creating a somewhat onerous restriction on their public availability.
These cards, however, are a treasure trove for the historian and researcher.
Scaled footprint of the non-extant residence at 936 Shive Lane showing dimensions and covered porches.
With the advent of geographic information systems and rapid document scanning, this world has changed. Although formerly available through subscription, mainly held by real estate agents, title attorneys, and others needing access to this data, the newly elected Warren County PVA has made this information and the wealth of knowledge and history encapsulated in these PVA cards available and open to the public free of charge. (And best of all – unlike some other Kentucky counties, the Warren County PVA didn’t discard their old paper cards – they digitized them too!)
This home once stood at 731 Old Scottsville Road. This home was razed and two more modern homes have since stood on the site. Photo circa 1955-1960.
Any example of a resource is best illustrated by a case study. In my case I want to use something very familiar to me. Old Scottsville Road is a 6 1/2 mile road in southeastern Warren County, Kentucky. Once serving as the main road between Bowling Green and Scottsville, Kentucky, it was later granted turnpike status by act of the Kentucky General Assembly in 1866 and 1884 as the Row’s Mill Turnpike and Drake’s Creek and Allen Springs Turnpike, respectively. The bi-way that remains in existence today was the primary route until superseded by the newly realigned Scottsville Road (Hwy. 231) that came into existence in 1938.
Old Scottsville Road, as it exists today, is a bucolic stretch of tree-lined secondary road.
Although I travel this road daily and know where many of the now demolished historic homes once existed, I have never seen photos of many of them and only know them by what exists in that location today. What is most striking to me is the consistency of their style.
Much like more densely packed urban neighborhoods, the type of houses that once lined Old Scottsville Road were mostly T-plan cottages. (A T-plan refers to a dwelling that in plan (if you were to look down on it from above) looks like the letter “T” set on its side, with the cross bar of the T being a gable fronted wing.)
The home of George William and Julia Thomas Tibbs was located at 6432 Old Scottsville Road and was typical of many of the T-Plan cottages that existed in this community. A more modern home has since replaced this structure.
A few Easter eggs also revealed themselves; of which I had no clue to their existence. Rather than me blather on, let us take a tour down Old Scottsville Road as revealed through the circa 1960 Warren County PVA cards.
This recently demolished residence stood at 165 Old Scottsville Road. The stone veneer, mid-century ranch style home was inhabited for most of its life by Estell and Dorothy Preston Renick.
This unique home stood near the bank of Drakes Creek and likely served as a fishing camp. This property was acquired by the Kentucky Department of Highways and razed (circa 1980) for a realignment and bridge replacement project.
1780 Old Scottsville Road was the home of the John Thomas, Sr. family. This T-Plan cottage has been replaced by a more modern residence.
This razed home stood at 2220 Old Scottsville Road and was the home of Ewing Jackson and Famie Stice Atkison. A modern residence has been erected to the rear of this site. The home was unique for its porch spanning the front and side elevations.
This extant structure at 2382 Old Scottsville Road was the home of James Ernest and Mary Alice Brooks Stice and later of Otis Ray ‘Buck’ and Elizabeth Stice Roberson.
Stice’s Store also known as Lone Oak Restaurant was located at 2740 Old Scottsville Road. No longer standing.
Another view of Stice’s Store at 2740 Old Scottsville Road. The store and restaurant was operated by Forest ‘Shoat’ and Allene Lee Stice and was destroyed by fire in the early 2000’s. The property is now a vacant lot.
This residence, also located at 2740 Old Scottsville Road, served as home to the Stice family who operated the adjacent Lone Oak Restaurant. Typical of a Cumberland plan house (a type with two front doors and no central hallway) the home was razed and the site is now a vacant lot.
This non-extant bungalow stood at 3094 Old Scottsville Road and served as a tenant house on the associated farm owned by Forest ‘Shoat’ and Allene Lee Stice.
Spivey’s Grocery and later White Kitchen Restaurant was located at 3183 Old Scottsville Road. The store was owned by Bill and Vada Gentry Spivey. This building still stands with very little alteration from the above picture. The proprietor’s home is across the road from this location.
The non-extant Herschel Goodnight and Lurlie Lee Donoho Greathouse home stood at 199 Greathouse Road overlooking Old Scottsville Road. The two room balloon frame structure was the author’s ancestral home and site of his current residence.
This simple, non-extant home once stood on the property at 3647 Old Scottsville Road and likely served as a tenant house.
This vernacular style, stone home was constructed at 3984 Old Scottsville Road by Heber Roy and Betsey Claypool Hardcastle following their purchase of the property in circa 1930. An earlier frame residence stood on this site. The home is unique for its stone veneer construction with all stone building material having been gathered on the associated farm.
The non-extant Elijah M. and Jane Ellen Porter Davidson home at 4209 Old Scottsville Road. This single-story Cumberland plan home and all dependencies has been replaced by a modern residence.
The 2010 PVA card of 4209 Old Scottsville Road shows all dependencies as they existed at the time giving interesting insight into a South-Central Kentucky domestic and agricultural complex. Uniquely, this home was owned and occupied by the same family from construction in the 1850’s until the last owner’s death in 1997.
4556 Old Scottsvile Road was once the site of the above-photographed T-Plan cottage that was home to William ‘Will’ Cassady (sic.). This home burned in the 1970’s and has been replaced by a more modern residence.
As with any resource, there are limitations to this collection. The PVA cards as digitally available must coincide with current addresses in order to link to the GIS mapped parcels. Also, many of the cards are missing photos indicating a cache of unidentified photos in the PVA archives. As has happened in many rural areas, larger farms have been subdivided causing many parcels in the place of an historic single parcel. Usually, the PVA card for the historically larger parcel is simply not available digitally.
This extant T-Plan cottage stands at 6493 Old Scottsville Road and was the home of Mason and Daisy Larmon Isbell and later owned by Neal and Lelia Mae Sears Comfort.
Finally, the PVA cards only cover the period from circa 1960 forward. Anything demolished prior to that date lacks documentation. It is important to note that the images represented in this archive may in fact be the only photos available of many of these structures.
General merchandise stores were common along Old Scottsville Road. The 6 ½ mile stretch under study had six such stores including the W.J. Sledge & Son store pictured above and located at 9994 Alvaton Road (formerly Scottsville Road prior to realignment). This building stands today and has been much altered from its original appearance.
I applaud the newly elected PVA for making this resource free and publicly available and no doubt this has been many years in the making by staff past and present. I challenge all of Kentucky’s elected PVAs to take this step and look forward to the opportunities this provides historians, local, amateur, and professional.
Thank you, Eric! Great resource and I appreciate your comments along with the current addresses. We love living on Old Scottsville Road.
Fascinating! Thank you — previously unsure what a ‘T-plan’ was….
(a.k.a. “The Scottsville Rabbit Hole” !)
Thank you Eric for sharing this info.
Really appreciate this information about Warren County Property Cards. Also thanks for researching the Old Scottsville Road area which has been our home for 30 plus years.
SO GLAD there is a record and pics of the past stores and homes in our area!
Thanks Eric, a GREAT neighbor and friend, for taking the time to share these Hidden Treasures!
A little more insight into these cards… I am scanned each and every one of these cards, close to 30,000, while working for the prior PVA- Bob Branstetter. I then became the PVA in March of 2021, shortly after my appointment I made these archive cards available online. If you are ever in the old courthouse, take a trip up to the third floor. Bob and I selected images of old country stores from all over the county and some downtown businesses and blew them up on canvasses. It is a wonderful tribute to our past.
My grandfather, Delbert Ash, served as the PVA (earlier known as tax commissioner) in Lewis County in northeastern Kentucky for more than 20 years. I recall a similar card catalog in that office.
I wonder if they saved the cards?
Eric, thank you for the applause, and thank you for the wonderful write up of your adventure into Warren County’s history. It is an honor to be able to serve others, including you, by making the Warren County PVA website free of charge.
Thanks Eric! Certainly recognize many of these and one no longer existing T plan in particular 🙂