A Mission Style Mystery in Bowling Green, Kentucky

A stroll down the 500 block of Chestnut Street in Bowling Green, Kentucky quickly brings to mind the Sesame Street song: “One of these things is not like the other; One of these things doesn’t belong.” Situated in a block occupied by remnant mid-nineteenth century, side and central passage homes surrounded by mostly modern medical offices, parking lots, and multi-residential infill lies a jewel of a home. Best described as Mission-Style and most likely built in circa 1935; the 1,025 square foot home with parapet sidewalls and castellated corners capped by a curvilinear (and almost exotic!) parapet causes any observant passerby to say “Hmmm, how did that get there?”

A petite Mission style house in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Photograph by Eric Thomason.

Few other examples exist in Bowling Green of this unique style. No doubt, geography plays a large role; but, frankly, adaptation of more traditional, local-to-South Central Kentucky building materials would have been a challenge to local architects, homebuilders, and local building supply companies. This style simply does not exist on any scale here. Only one other similar example is readily found, 1349 State Street. I implore local followers of Gardens To Gables to point out other known examples.

While the Bowling Green example lacks the terrace, gateway, and exterior ornamentation, I imagine the interior is similar to Style 436 from Pacific’s 1925 Book of Homes.

The Mission Style evolved in California, and enjoyed its greatest popularity nationwide between 1890 and 1920. Drawing from colonial-era Spanish Mission buildings, this style – usually seen on residential buildings – is all about the parapet. It rises above the roofline, and swoops, curves, steps, and demands attention. Many “houses by mail” catalogs offered numerous Mission Style house plans, like the one featured in Pacific’s kit homes catalog of 1925, seen above.

Two very different eras of American architecture: the mid-19th century side-passage plan house on the left, and the California-influenced house from the 1930s on the right. Photograph by Eric Thomason.

Simply seeing this home only raises many more questions. Who built it? How did they settle on this style? Is it a fanciful adaptation of another more basic structure? Local research helps answer some of these questions but leaves many more.

My first stop was the Warren County Clerk’s Office land records in the basement of the historic Warren County Courthouse. The two-story side passage home located to the left of 520 Chestnut Street is a mid-nineteenth century side-passage home historically known as the P. Ackerman Home. Peter Ackerman has his own unique entrepreneurial history in Bowling Green as a brewer and tavern-keeper.

Circa 2005 images of the Mission style house. Photographs from the survey files of the Kentucky Heritage Council.

In 1933 the property was owned by Hugh Columbus and Olive Belle Harris Tabor and their son G. Herschel Tabor and his wife Pauline. It is important to note that this is not the Pauline Tabor that helped make Bowling Green famous but a similarly named individual with a less colorful, enduring legacy.

At some point G. Herschel Tabor relocated to Florida where he passed away in 1980. All indications point to Herschel Tabor or his father dividing the much larger lot the Ackerman home sat on and constructing 520 Chestnut Street around 1935.

Side elevation and facade of the house. Photograph by Eric Thomason.

The first reference to the Mission Styled home is in a 1939 deed transaction where the two properties pass out of the Tabor family for a tidy sum of $947.43. The deed describes a parcel of land “upon which is located two residences . . . with the improvements thereon (on the subdivided Ackerman lot) consisting of a stucco dwelling house.” Subsequent deed transactions saw the home at 520 Chestnut Street pass through a series of close to a dozen owners.

While it may not be like the others – it is very charming and appealing! Photograph by Eric Thomason.

My research, as any good research does, raises more questions than answers and I challenge Gardens to Gables readers to raise their own hypotheses about how this particular, unique home came to land on a side-lot in one of the more historic parts of Bowling Green.

Questions I am left with: Did the potential builder who later died in Florida see a similar home on travels there and bring the idea back? Did the budding pop culture outlets of the day, film and magazine, provide fodder for outside-the-box architectural styles? Was this an example of recycled materials and vernacular stylings making an otherwise meager dwelling into something much more?  There is no doubt that my love of history arises from the questions it raises.

You can reach Eric Thomason at j.eric.thomason@gmail.com or simply comment on this post.