Every historic building has a story to tell
Christmas is almost here! My advice to last-minute shoppers? Shop small and local. This morning, I took my minions on a small adventure to experience a retail store the way it used to be, with a visit to the cozy and historic R. L. Brown & Company Store on Main Street in Sharpsburg, Kentucky. This (read more)
Category: Bath County
Tags: #kentuckyarchitecture, #mainstreet, #sharpsburgky, #shoplocal
Although I am pretty familiar with downtown Frankfort, there are always interesting historic buildings to spy – or interesting details on buildings some might dismiss as ordinary or plain. Take this two-story frame house for example: a common form in domestic architecture across the Southeast, with different names in different locales. In Kentucky, we call (read more)
Category: Franklin County
Tags: #frankfortky, #kentuckyarchitecture, #vernaculararchitecure
I write too much about the death of historic buildings. But there are good stories out there, stories about historic buildings given new life, even stories where chocolate plays a big role (for me at least!). The day before Thanksgiving, my family and I sampled the tasty delights of the Hopewell Bake Exchange, housed in (read more)
Category: Bourbon County
Tags: #hopewellbakeexchange, #kentuckyarchitecture, #parisky
Recycling waste items – newspapers, plastic containers, glass and metal – has made inroads in communities across Kentucky. But the recycling of historic buildings just doesn’t seem to catch on – it is an elusive idea that seems downright alien to many towns and property owners. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, long a champion of historic preservation, (read more)
Category: Marion County
To my chagrin, I’ve written more about the demolition of Second Empire style houses in Kentucky than I’ve penned stories about still-standing examples of the relatively rare style. Rare in the Commonwealth at least – due to a number of factors, the Second Empire style never really caught on in Kentucky – with the exception (read more)
Category: Montgomery County
Tags: #kentuckyarchitecture, #mtsterlingky, #SecondEmpirestyle, MansardMonday
A reader once commented that my tone in discussing changes made to a particular historic house was “negative.” I respectfully disagree. The observation and analysis that I carry out as an architectural historian does not stem from an inherent pessimism. Observing and detailing the exterior of historic buildings (and occasionally interiors as well), is what (read more)
Category: Clark County
There is a handsome, two-story brick building, with an impressive stone facade, in downtown Catlettsburg, Kentucky. From the design and monumental form of the building (even though it is small in scale, details and massing can be monumental!) my guess is that it was a bank. The three bay wide facade has pilasters flanking the (read more)
Category: Boyd County
In 1922, Dr. Prince Albert Hart (commonly referred to by his initials) lived in a late 19th century house in downtown Murray, Kentucky. (I have many questions about his name, but that’s not pertinent right now.) A photograph of the dwelling, a blend of Gothic Revival and Italianate architectural styles, was taken that year and (read more)
Category: Calloway County
A reader emailed me this morning, asking if I’d carried out much research on historic theaters in Kentucky. Although there is always more research I yearn to conduct on the myriad thousand themes and buildings dancing about in my head, I have written a few blog posts (nine) about historic movie palaces and drive-in movie (read more)
Category: Movie theaters
Tag: Movie theaters
In 1911, a new, two-story brick building went up on East 9th Street – home to a movie theater named “Photoplay Place. ” Described as “one of the handsomest theatres in this part of the State,” the theater could seat around 600 people. Disaster struck, however, when the theater burned in 1918, during a showing (read more)
Category: Christian County
Tags: #historicmovietheater, #hopkinsvilleky, #kentuckyarchitecture, #movietheater
Interested in a specific topic? Check out some popular categories below, or enter your search terms in the box.