No one who knows me would characterize me as a quiet person. Nor have I ever been labeled as demure or retiring. Still, when I don my less-than-flattering neon yellow highway safety vest, a liberal coating of mineral sunscreen, (it helps cars see me when my skin glows bright white), my sunglasses, AND my large straw hat to carry out a survey of historic buildings, I expect to carry out my job relatively unobtrusively and anonymously. Especially when I am around 300 miles from home.
The circa 1885 Hickman County Courthouse in Clinton, Kentucky.
This somewhat solitary work includes, of course, any necessary conversations with residents who may want to know why I am taking pictures or curious cats and dogs who like to follow me around. But that’s generally about it. I explain my purpose in walking down the road, hit on a few highlights of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, and I move on to the next historic resource.
For those of you who don’t know, Hickman County is WEST Kentucky. Not Western Kentucky. Clinton is the county seat.
I bring all of this up to explain that when I heard someone hailing me from the opposite side of Highway US-51 in Clinton, Kentucky, the last thing I expected was to see Garden’s to Gables Facebook page displayed on the stranger’s upheld cell phone. But there it was, and there was Roy Dale!
Apparently, it wasn’t so much me that Roy recognized, but my hat.
If I hadn’t already been so very hot, you could have knocked me over with a feather. A follower of my blog! In Hickman County!
Of course, it turns out that not only does Roy follow my blog, but he hails from near my neck of the woods, in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Listen – Kentucky IS a small world.
Historic former filling station, Clinton, Kentucky.
And I am so thankful for that small world, for Roy Dale was not only a valuable source of information (and introductions), but a willing explorer of historic buildings. If he hadn’t spied me shuffling along the sidewalk, I would have missed out on a great deal of Clinton history, and my time in West Kentucky would have been much less interesting.
I would not have enjoyed fried green tomatoes at the Beehive Cafe in downtown Clinton (locally grown and delicious!) nor would I have ventured inside the beautiful and achingly sad First Christian Church. (I’ll be writing about this church at a later date.)
Roy knows just about everyone in Hickman County, which made it much easier for me – a visitor from the “Northeast.”
Interior of the late 19th century First Church Church, which was listed in the National Register in 2015, but is now a victim of neglect.
I returned from Hickman County with a few hundred photographs, and a new appreciation for the river counties of West Kentucky. Thanks to Roy Dale and Gaye Bencini, I now follow the Hickman County Times on Facebook. (Many years before graduate school and my exiting life as an intrepid architectural historian, I was set on becoming a journalist. Sort of a cross between Harriet the Spy meets All the President’s Men with Woodward and Bernstein.)*
Downtown Clinton, Kentucky. as shown on the 1923 Sanborn Fire Insurance map.
The muggy temperatures of last week gave way to rain and horrible flooding this week in Hickman, Graves, and Fulton Counties. The same streets I walked across in downtown Clinton looked like creeks as the water accumulated. I watched the photographs and reports come in from the Hickman County Times, and I’ve worried what yet more weather disasters will mean for towns like Clinton.
Interior of the Methodist Church, which reminded me of some Arts and Crafts homes I’ve visited.
Clinton, founded in 1826, is a small town in a rural, sparsely populated county. Driving to and from Clinton each day from Paducah, I felt like a tiny moving speck among the vast soybean and corn fields to either side of the two lane road. The county’s economic base remains largely agricultural, but as farming (and farm equipment) has gotten larger, Clinton appears to have shrunk.
Most of the historic resources in Clinton date from the early 20th century, and there are two dwellings with wonderful original windows, like this house.
And this fact, along with the abandoned houses and the historic crumbling church I encountered, makes me incredibly sad. Not only are there amazing people in Clinton and Hickman County, there is so much history – and the natural resources are also amazing. The Mississippi River? You can see it from Kentucky, folks. Just head west.
Two historic commercial buildings on the Courthouse square in Clinton.
I don’t have the answer to the economic issues of Kentucky’s rural small towns. I’m just an architectural historian lucky enough to travel across Kentucky, learning and photographing as I go. It’s not just history and old buildings that I discover, however – sometimes I am discovered. And when my guise of anonymity drops, I meet some truly great people.
* I owe a great deal of thanks to Ken and Janet Johnson for tolerating and gently guiding my tendency toward purple prose in high school.
Ms. Gardens To Gables,
A truly Heartwarming Post❣️
Sincerely,
Dr. Reed
You, and what you do, are invaluable. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
As a devoted follower of your podcasts and Facebook page, and a trained historian myself, I alert my surviving Huggins/May/Flanders-born cousins and two younger sisters of everything you post. From Breathitt County, Hazard and its environs, Heidelburg, no longer incorporated, where the confluence of the Green River and L&N lines made the town an obvious choice for a station and sidings, managed by my dear Papaw, who i got to know before he died. Names associated with my mountain roots: Rose, Lily, Dahlia, Chloe, my Mamaw, mother and Great Aunts, Berry, Clarence, Delbert, Great Uncles, Sim, a favorite, whose wife, my Aunt Tina, was younger sister of wild.woman Earsel, whose first marriage gave us a sort of cousin-by-marriage, Harry Dean Stanton, the great character.actor. If all this is of interest, check out.my Facebook.page.
Thanks for sharing…..made me feel as though I was right there with you. Looking forward to seeing more pictures, especially the church.
So glad you made this trip to west KY and saw the amazing landscape, built and natural. It is one of the most fascinating places in KY, yet, as you noted, way off the beaten path for most. Who knows what the area would be like now if Columbus had become the nation’s capital, as some proposed, because of its strategic location on the MS River? Did you visit the “bubble”?
There is nothing better than good friends with kind words…… Thanks …..
I so enjoyed my “visit” to Clinton, KY! I’m a Paducahan.
Born, raised and assume I’ll die here. Never have I been to Clinton…sorry to say. So glad, though I got to see Clinton and the beautiful buildings. Just one question, is the church still being used? It looked like it was in usable condition.
Thank you again for the visit!
Sherry
The church is privately owned. Purchased for $1.00 with a promise that it would be restored.
It was used in 2016 for an Old Hymn Sing. Residents contributed thousands of dollars hoping for restoration that was never even begun.
A delightful commentary. I began my blessedly extended life in Paris and came to love old houses by virtue of also residing in some pretty interesting places. I ended up in a little town named Edenton NC. Here I walk daily among a plethora of homes with tales to tell. Like your experience, it’s mostly the lives lived that make all the difference. Thanks for doing what you do and for describing your garb—I loved this edition!
I grew up in Clinton and there is much more away from the downtown. Take a memory lane down Jefferson street where I lived. Jerry Lee Lewis once played in Clinton. The old railroad to the station, passing the feed mill. Skip across the Highway 51 where Albin W. Barkley stayed at the old Clinton College
Thanks for your lively voice in support of historic preservation. Please do revisit the Historic First Christian Church in Clinton. It is one of a kind, and tells a story that goes far beyond its striking interior. It will take a miracle to save this sanctuary. It will take a miracle to save and display parts of this building. But hey….
What a great post. Your narrative made the people and buildings of Clinton, sound fascinating. Can’t wait to read your take on the First Christian Church’s ceiling. Such a heartwarming look at surveying Hickman County. I would love to join you when the humidity and temps are lower.
I’m so excited that I came across your article! My mother grew up in Clinton in the 1920’s & ‘30’s, along with a bunch of maternal cousins. In the early 1900’s, her mother and some cousins from Arkansas visited her cousins’ sister who’d married a Clinton man. They met their husbands there and raised their families in homes along the west side of the hill up S Washington St. My grandfather’s family had settled in Hickman County generations ago. My brother, cousins & I have fond memories of visiting our grandparents while growing up. My mother’s paternal cousins were members of the First Christian Church. It’s sad that the planned restoration has never happened. Since Clinton was bypassed by the interstates and parkways, it has shrunk considerably.
I am glad you found it too! Would you recognize any of the houses on South Washington Street? I’d love to be able to find out some of the original owners. I’ll send you an email!