Every historic building has a story to tell
In the last year or so, I’ve encountered so many fabulous historic apartment buildings that I feel like I have a new crush. Last August, as I rolled down a hill into Parkersburg, West Virginia, I saw the circa 1903 Savage Flats out of my passenger window, and little hearts began to dance in (read more)
Category: West Virginia
Tags: #historicapartments, #historicarchitecture, #parkersburgwv
I voted early this year, in a large, cavernous space that bore no resemblance to precinct voting as I used to know it. For several years, I worked the polls in Lexington, supplementing the meager salary I received as a state employee with a long, long day in a historic firehouse or a local school. (read more)
Category: Rowan County
Tags: #kentuckyarchitecture, #RowanCountyKY, #votinghouses, #worksprogressadministration
Here’s a little secret: In addition to the 496 blog posts on this site, I have a folder of 78 drafts. Most of them have no title, or identifying notations from the preview window, so I must click on each “no title” entry to discover what on earth I saved eight years ago and never (read more)
Category: Warren County
Tags: #bowlinggreenky, #kentuckyarchitecture, #motorcourt, #roadsidearchitecture
As I’ve groused many times before, the problem with taking so many photographs of historic buildings is labelling those photographs. But how to choose the best sort of label/name that will survive changes in ownership, land divisions, or (most frightening) technology changes that render my thousands of photographs obsolete? This point was driven home to (read more)
The oldest brick building in Booneville, Kentucky, was built in 1888 as a general store. Today, it is a resplendent sight in the small county seat town (population around 168 in 2020). The two-story, front gable building is three bays wide, with pilasters separating the segmentally arched openings on the facade. The original 2/2 wooden (read more)
Category: Owsley County
Tags: #boonevilleky, #kentuckyarchitecture, #nationalregisterofhistoricplaces
I’m always partial to a house with personality. The William and Ella Craycroft McElroy House, with its distinctive near-diamond shaped footprint, exudes character and charm. The 2.5-story, frame, Queen Anne style house was built between 1898 and 1903 on Main Street in Springfield, Kentucky. The first time I saw this delightful concoction, I wondered (read more)
Category: Washington County
Tags: #kentuckyarchitecture, #queenannestyle, #springfieldky
There’s a striking, four-story brick building on the corner of West Fourth and York Streets in Newport, Kentucky. It’s easily the largest historic commercial building in the area (away from the new construction along the Ohio River), and easily visible, since it’s the only building left standing along York Street in this block. Built in (read more)
Category: Campbell County
Tags: #kentuckyarchitecture, #newportky, #SecondEmpirestyle, MansardMonday
At the beginning of 2023, there 690 Dollar General Stores in Kentucky. In the spring of 2024, Dollar General announced plans to open around 800 new stores in the United States, even as other dollar stores faced hundreds of closures. Now, despite FIVE existing Dollar General stores in Mercer County, Kentucky, a historic 19th (read more)
Category: Mercer County
In the early 19th century, the town of Cadiz, Kentucky (I pronounce it “Kay-deeez”, but I’m not from there) won a contested election among neighboring communities to become the seat of government for Trigg County. Prior to the Civil War, the town prospered due to a fortuitous location on two turnpikes and close proximity (read more)
Category: Trigg County
Tags: #CadizKY, #kentuckyarchitecture, #nationalregisterofhistoricplaces
Three years ago, I wrote about a photographer named Theodore Webb, and the work he carried out for the Historic American Buildings Survey. Today I had the pleasure of browsing the HABS collection (looking for something else entirely), and came across the jaw-dropping documentation of Rose Hill, a Federal-style house (with later stylistic modifications) in (read more)
Category: Fayette County
Tags: #lexingtonky, #Libraryofcongress, HABS, Rosehill
Interested in a specific topic? Check out some popular categories below, or enter your search terms in the box.