Every historic building has a story to tell
The daffodils, yellow and bright against a gray February day, signaled to me to slow down. Then I saw the house, half hidden by trees, a small, frame, central passage dwelling on a stone foundation, with a brick chimney at either gable end. The weatherboard was still mostly white on the one-story house, but the (read more)
Categories: Abandoned houses, Abandoned Kentucky, Warren County
Tags: #abandonedhouse, #kentuckyarchitecture, #warrencountyky, Farmhouse
The loss of the 1890 census, any historian or genealogist will tell you, was devastating. When a fire broke out in the Commerce Building in Washington, DC in 1921, I don’t imagine many people thought about the results of that conflagration, and the destruction of the information gathered in the Eleventh Census. For me, trying (read more)
Categories: Kentucky architecture, Montgomery County
Tags: #shotgunhouse, Shotgun house
I took a stroll to get some bagels earlier this week, and might have also used the time to take some photographs of historic houses (shocking, I know). One of my favorite little oddities, at 384 Oldham Avenue, caught my eye as it has in the past. On a street of mostly T-plan cottages, this (read more)
Category: Fayette County
Last week, the historic United Brethren of Friendship Lodge Hall in Paris, Kentucky, suffered a partial collapse of its rear wall. The City of Paris Fire Department closed the road around the building and publicized the incident, but I am sure many people did not see beyond the decay of a long-neglected old building. It’s (read more)
The best example of Tudor Revival architecture I’ve seen recently wasn’t the typical 1930s house – but a former carriage house. The two-story brick structure has every embellishment one could wish for in this style of architecture: arches, faux half-timbering, mullioned windows, sharp gables and a steep roofline. When the Caulfield & Shook studio documented (read more)
Categories: Jefferson County, Louisville, Tudor Revival
Tags: #TudorTuesday, Amelia Place, Cherokee Triangle, Tudor Revival
Candy hearts, Valentine’s, chocolate, flowers…I’ve supervised Valentine card making this weekend, gotten treats for two parties for the tiny people, and consumed way too much sugar. But what I really want for Valentine’s Day? Some preservation success stories! The bleak winter landscape doesn’t help, but I feel inundated with stories of pending demolitions and losses (read more)
Category: Historic Preservation
Tag: Valentine's Day
Remember the puzzles in Highlights Magazine? The ones where you peer closely at a busy drawing to determine what’s out of place? Sometimes being an architectural historian is much like those puzzles. There’s such a house near downtown Winchester, Kentucky, and I’ve never been able to learn anything about it. In a neighborhood of late-19th (read more)
Category: Clark County
The railroad town of Midway, Kentucky, is not only endearing, pretty, and charming, but it possesses a depth of interesting historic architecture. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed strolling the quiet streets and taking in a range of architectural styles and types. One curious house that has long intrigued me has now gone on the market, (read more)
Category: Woodford County
Tags: #historicarchitecture, #midwayky, #nationalregisterofhistoricplaces
Once upon a time, my grandmother kept a wooden bookshelf in her basement upon which she stored jars of jellies and preserves. Prior to taking up residence in her basement, the bookshelf lived on the porch of her childhood home. I discovered it in the storage unit my family kept following my grandmother’s death and (read more)
Category: Material Culture
Tags: #bookshelf, #eastlake, #furniture, #materialculture, Books
As is often my practice when confronted with issues outside my control (Covid-19, the weather, potty-training a recalcitrant toddler), I turn either to a good book or to musings about historic homes. Today I am fixing my thoughts on this 1911 design of a quintessentially quixotic dwelling from Sears, Roebuck and Co. The two-story house (read more)
Interested in a specific topic? Check out some popular categories below, or enter your search terms in the box.