Every historic building has a story to tell
I pulled over when I first saw the store. The gravel parking lot into which I veered belonged to a very interesting 20th century church, and after getting out of the car, camera in hand, I noticed the school. It was gray day, threatening rain, but my temper soared like it was the sunniest of conditions. (read more)
Categories: Country Store, Crossroad communities, Kentucky Places, Schools, Wayne County
In 1939, businessman Roy Black decided to upgrade his store. Once located along the Rockcastle River Railway,* Black’s business now overlooked a modern new highway – Kentucky Route 30 – with cars zooming past his general store rather than trains hauling lumber. His old store was a one-story, front gable frame building – a common (read more)
Categories: Crossroad communities, Laurel County
Tags: #countrystore, #generalstore, #laurelcountyky, #royblack
I’ve been lucky to travel extensively around the United States and Europe – but heart-stopping places are often the ones closest to home. A few years ago, I spent several weeks in far-western Kentucky, exploring the farms and crossroads communities of Livingston County. I fell in love with one rural hamlet in particular, which retained (read more)
The rusticated concrete blocks arrived at Helena Junction on the train from Carlise, Kentucky. Church members transported the blocks in their own horse-drawn wagons to the site of their new church. The stained glass windows – in various sizes and shapes – were made in Paris, Kentucky. I hope the sun was out the day (read more)
I’ve never tried to estimate how many photographs I’ve taken since Gardens to Gables came into existence (springing from my mind like Athena from the head of Zeus!). Digital photography has made photography more accessible and cheaper, but the ability to take so many photos sometimes causes me fits. The fits, though, are not as (read more)
From my earliest days as a denizen of backseat land, watching the world unfold from the car window, I’ve been a careful observer of place names.* Road signs, heralding a waterway or community, were carefully transcribed by me in my ever-present sketch pad or notebook, to serve as the root of many a daydream when it (read more)
On June 10, 1886, a post office was established at a crossroads in northwestern Jackson County, Kentucky, and the community around it christened “Collinsworth.” This wasn’t the birth of the village, for it had been around well before the Civil War, but a post office marked the beginning of a modern community, one in touch (read more)
When the news media reports a winning lottery ticket, my imagination shifts into overdrive. My plans for my imaginary lottery spoils include buying up lots of farmland for preservation, endowing numerous non-profits, and buying my own country store (adjacent to my farm, of course). In the preface to Pills, Petticoats, and Plows, the late state (read more)
Categories: Architecture, Country Store, Crossroad communities, Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture, Kentucky history, National Register of Historic Places, Vernacular, Warren County
Tags: Bowling Green Kentucky, Country stores, historic tax credits, Houchens, Thomas D. Clark, Warren County Kentucky
I’ve often found myself hiking along creeks for several miles to reach a historic house site, far removed from the current road network. Invariably, these hikes have been at the height of summer, with all the joy that entails in Kentucky’s humidity… My temporary discomfort, however, forces me to consider historic transportation routes, and how (read more)
The month of January found me suspended in a maelstrom of deadlines. The joy I typically find in my profession disintegrated into a frenzy of writing, severe brain strain, and a complete lack of appreciation for the fascinating buildings that were my subject. Then, one email broke through the fog of my stress, and everything (read more)
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