Every historic building has a story to tell
Louisville in the 1920s brimmed with energy and optimism. The horrors of the Great War were receding, and the economy, building projects, and the city boundaries all expanded. In 1922, nearly 12 square miles of suburban land to the east and south of Louisville (some 40,000 people) were added to the city’s tax rolls. Developers (read more)
Category: Louisville
Tags: #historicarchitecture, #historichouse, #kentuckyarchitecture, #louisvilleky, #oldhouses
Last September, I took the long way home and wandered though the middle of Hopkins County. One small rural community I passed through was Charleston, where in 1939 and 1940, the Works Progress Administration built a school. I saw no sign of this building as I drove north on Route 109, and my online search (read more)
Categories: Hopkins County, Works Progress Administration
Tags: #charlestonky, #historicschools, #kentuckyarchitecture, #kentuckyplaces, WPA
As longtime followers of this blog might know, I am an architectural historian, with a day job, a family, a farm, and I maintain this blog in my free time. My career allows me to combine three of my greatest passions: being outside (and gardening!), writing, and old buildings. I’m not interested in being a (read more)
Categories: Abandoned houses, Abandoned Kentucky, Warren County
Tags: #abandonedhouse, #kentuckyarchitecture, #warrencountyky
Spring/early summer is upon Kentucky, and this brief glorious period (before oppressive heat and humidity and worries about lack of rain sets in) coincides with my complete lack of attention to anything but the most pressing of matters – and my garden. My stack of library books gather cobwebs in the corner (I have a (read more)
Categories: Gardens, Kentucky Gardens
Tags: #garden, #gardenlife, #kentuckygarden, #kentuckygardener, #kentuckygardens, Gardening
My husband likes to regale me with stories of how he went on his first “date” at age 10 to the Kentucky Theatre. The parents conspired to make this happen and delivered the young couple to the doors of the movie house. I have no idea what the movie was, as I am usually busy (read more)
Categories: Fayette County, Theaters
Tags: #kentuckyarchitecture, #kentuckytheatre, #lexingtonky, #moviepalace, movies
Affordable housing is a pressing matter – crucial even – for most communities in this country. So it strikes me as asinine that a well-built, conveniently located 12-unit apartment building in Lexington (1320-1324 Versailles Road) is slated for demolition – for another gas station? I am not sure how the Planning Commission thinks this will (read more)
Categories: Demolition, Fayette County
Tags: #lexingtonky, #lucillecaudilllittle, #wreckingballwatch, demolition
A valuable piece of Lexington history was lost earlier this year when 504 and 506 Euclid Avenue were demolished. I was able to photograph 506 Euclid (and its tiny addition, 506 1/2) before it was felled, but I have few photos of 504 Euclid Avenue, once home (from 1938-1991) to Brooking’s Restaurant, famed for their (read more)
An oft-told family story is the shock and vertigo experienced by my mother when she moved to my father’s hometown. The paternal side of my family takes its cousins VERY seriously – even today. Her mother-in-law, trying to acclimate her to life in the community, introduced her around, but it was all a bewildering maze (read more)
Categories: Kentucky history, Oral History
Tags: #familystories, #kentuckyarchitecture, #kentuckyhistory, #oralhistory
In the fall of 2020, mired in the uncertainty of the world and convinced we might never venture off the farm again, my daughter and I ordered some tulip bulbs. Tulips, while beautiful, have never been a mainstay of any of my gardens. They are too expensive to be treated like annuals, and yet that (read more)
Category: Kentucky Gardens
Tags: Gardening, Gardens, Kentucky gardener, tulips
It’s National Library Week and I feel the urge to ruminate on the public library, one of the most valuable institutions in this country. My love affair with the public library started very early, and fittingly it was with a historic house repurposed for use as a library. Once you walked in the front door, (read more)
Category: Montgomery County
Tags: #NationalLibraryWeek, libraries, library, public library
Interested in a specific topic? Check out some popular categories below, or enter your search terms in the box.