Every historic building has a story to tell
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
The minions are back to school – a time of year I always eagerly anticipated as a student. These days, I channel that exciting back-to-school feeling by…cleaning out my files of photographs. There are some places I’ve forgotten visiting. My guilt grows when I see countless electronic folders full of unorganized pictures of hundreds of (read more)
Category: Other Places
Tags: #evansvillein, #porch, #portico, #riversidehistoricdistrict
Some houses slip away without too much fuss, like wan characters suffering from a long-term case of consumption in a Victorian novel – characters you assume will disappear with a languishing sigh by the middle of the book. Usually, these are buildings with faded or little street appeal, allowed to deteriorate and never given much (read more)
Category: Bourbon County
Tags: #historicpreservation, #kentuckyarchitecture, #parisky
A mad dash through Ballard County, Kentucky, last summer introduced me to several towns on US Highway 60 – towns that were formed or expanded due to the Illinois Central Railroad line – Kevil, La Center, and Barlow. One my favorite historic houses from 2023 is located in La Center. This small community (population (read more)
It can be hard to avoid negative news in my line of work – historic preservation is not for the easily daunted. That is one reason I take great joy in the many historic buildings and landscapes in Kentucky that are preserved, and the accidental discoveries I make while taking the long road home. Eight (read more)
Category: Marion County
Tags: #historicpreservation, #kentuckyarchitecture, #lebanonky, #vernaculararchitecure
It’s taken five years, but a bungalow and Tudor Revival style house on Nicholasville Road are now piles of rubble. Due to strident owner opposition, these properties were removed from the boundaries of the Pensacola Park H-1 District in Lexington, Kentucky, when it was approved in 2019. Their demolition may have long been in the (read more)
Category: Fayette County
I am, to forgive a tired metaphor, drawn to moldering historic buildings like a moth to a dancing flame. Last year, while working in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, I encountered dozens upon dozens of great examples of architecture, but none captivated me like the Samuel Alwine House on East Pittsburgh Street. Though ill-used in the last few (read more)
Category: Other Places
Tags: #GreensburgPA, #historichouse, MansardMonday
In 1908, an advertisement for the Pineville Hotel promised “first class entertainment” and a “congenial climate in most beautiful mountain section.” The hotel, at the southwest corner of Kentucky Avenue and Oak Street, was a handsome, four-story brick building with a wrap-around metal balcony on the facade and west elevations, a prime spot from (read more)
Category: Bell County
Tags: #hotel, #pinevilleky, demolition
As readers of this blog will know, the Second Empire style isn’t especially thick on the ground in Kentucky. We have the occasional Second Empire style house (sometimes a late 19th century “update” of an earlier house), pseudo-mansard roofs on many small houses in Northern Kentucky, and the mansard-roofed tower, a sort of exuberant exclamation (read more)
Category: Harrison County
There’s nothing quite as striking as a historic, corner commercial building – one that catches the eye from multiple directions and enlivens its site with architectural detail and a balanced mass and scale. The Clifton Historic District is home to many outstanding historic buildings, but the E.P. Thomas Store and House, with its diagonal (read more)
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