Every historic building has a story to tell
As longtime followers of this blog might know, I am an architectural historian, with a day job, a family, a farm, and I maintain this blog in my free time. My career allows me to combine three of my greatest passions: being outside (and gardening!), writing, and old buildings. I’m not interested in being a (read more)
Categories: Abandoned houses, Abandoned Kentucky, Warren County
Tags: #abandonedhouse, #kentuckyarchitecture, #warrencountyky
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, daffodils, old homesite
One of the most rewarding aspects of my profession (and there are many) is the mandate to explore. Back roads, dirt roads, fording creeks, and braving masses of honeysuckle, poison ivy, and bindweed, can result in unexpected treasures. Many years ago, I spent a hot summer documenting historic resources in Bath County, Kentucky – a (read more)
Although I grew up traveling frequently to Mercer County, Kentucky, to visit my grandparents and other family members, it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I first rode on US 68. My mother, a native of Harrodsburg, was in a wreck on the twisting, winding road when she was in high school, and (read more)
Just north of the hamlet known as Olympia in Bath County, Kentucky, rests a frame church, built on piers, sliding back into the earth from which it came. I’m not sure of the last time that a congregation streamed either in or out of the double front doors, or that a bell rang from the (read more)
Categories: Abandoned Kentucky, Bath County, Churches, Kentucky churches
Tags: Olympia Kentucky, Olympian Springs
A recent story on public radio about “unschooling” sent my thoughts ranging far and wide about the history of public education in Kentucky. A proponent of unschooling made the allusion that allowing children to learn how they wished, outside of formal education, has historic precedent – that “this is how young people learned well before (read more)
Categories: Abandoned Kentucky, Menifee County, Schools
Tags: #frenchburgschool, #menifeecountyky, #presbyterianchurch
Researching historic buildings is still an exercise that involves books (usually old and in the case of deed books, with varying levels of legible handwriting), lots of conversation (if you are lucky!), and patience. I employ many tactics to tease out the story of buildings for my day job, a luxury I can’t always indulge (read more)
Architecture is more than just shelter – and to those of us who love historic buildings – architecture is more than just ornament. Architecture is imbued with symbolism by the people that create and shape it, and historic buildings serve as artifacts of the time in which they were built. In that way, historic buildings represent (read more)
I’ve never kept track of how many abandoned and moldering rural houses I’ve encountered over the years. But though I might not know the number, if you show me a photograph, I can almost always tell you exactly where the house was located. This dwelling, built sometime after the Civil War – probably the 1870s – was (read more)
The recent spate of rain drenching the Bluegrass has not only made my backyard soggy, but reminded me how frustrating rain can be when you are out in a downpour, trying to photograph historic resources. (Not that I will ever complain about the rain – as a farmer’s daughter, I know better.) Spring rains a (read more)
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