Every historic building has a story to tell
In 1924, a group of local businessman in Vanceburg, Kentucky, pooled their resources and had a two-story factory building constructed as an inducement to a Cincinnati-based shoe manufacturer. Their ploy succeeded, and for almost 25 years, L.V. Marks and Sons Company operated a shoe factory in the Ohio River town. The building eventually fell prey (read more)
Category: Lewis County
Tags: factories, LV Marks Shoes, Vanceburg KY
The construction of road and railroads tends to mark important milestones in the development of Kentucky communities. The Elizabethtown, Lexington, and Big Sandy Railroad (later to become the Chesapeake and Ohio, or C&O) propelled the growth of many towns, including Olive Hill in Carter County. The northeastern Kentucky county boomed after the arrival of the (read more)
Categories: Carter County, Railroads
Tags: C&O Railroad, Olive Hill, Olive Hill Railroad Depot, Trail Town
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
Public education has a long and turbulent history in Kentucky. The reforms of the late 20th century followed efforts in the 19th century to provide access to education to children, with the most pressing need often being decent school buildings. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided sturdy, well-built school buildings to many counties across Kentucky (read more)
Categories: Breathitt County, Schools
Tags: #bigrockschool, #breathittcountyky, #EasternKentucky, #historicschools, #worksprogressadministration, WPA
I first thought this monumental building must be a post office or perhaps a Carnegie library. Although it is a landmark building in the downtown streetscape, the yellow sandstone (quarried locally) Neoclassical beauty was built in 1914 as the law offices of the Harkins family, headed by patriarch Walter S. Harkins. The elder Harkins, a (read more)
Categories: Floyd County, Kentucky architecture
Tags: Edwin Stamler, Harkins Law Office, Prestonsburg, Walter S. Harkins
Today’s date – June 21, 2018 – really only meant the summer solstice to me before I idly clicked on Twitter this morning. It is also apparently National Selfie Day – you know, taking a picture of yourself with a cell phone camera, usually (for me) with the result of my forehead dominating the resulting (read more)
Category: Uncategorized
Tag: National Selfie Day
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
In 1774, Thomas Hanson, a member of land surveying party out of Virginia, wrote of his surroundings, “the land is so good I cannot give it due praise.”* The area that captivated Hanson was around the North Elkhorn Creek watershed in Scott County, and on a shimmeringly hot afternoon last week, I couldn’t help but (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: #bourbontrail, #kentuckyarchitecture, #lawrenceburghotel, #lawrenceburgky, #railroadhotel, #stanfordky
The Internet has made reams of historic data available for nerds like myself, digging into the nooks and crannies of old buildings, attempting to reconstruct a timeline and story for forgotten buildings. But for every National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination I can retrieve on my computer, there are thousands and thousands of evocative (read more)
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