Every historic building has a story to tell
There are some abandoned buildings I’ve sadly grown used to seeing: houses, barns, stores, and old garages. Our crossroads communities across Kentucky boast these types by the hundreds (if not the thousands). For some reason, though, I encounter abandoned bank buildings less frequently. And I’m always surprised when I do. Banks exude an air of (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Crossroad communities, Kentucky architecture, Nicholas County, Vernacular
Tags: abandoned, banks, Moorefield, Nicholas County
Historic preservation can sometimes be a troubling, even divisive term. I haven’t heard it used in a while, but the term “hysterical” preservationist was bandied about quite a bit, and I am sure still is in certain circles. A common misconception is that preservation supporters want to stop time, and freeze every historic building so (read more)
A house, from the outside, reveals only a portion of its true character. Details – like intricately carved brackets, or a romantic-looking bay window – lead the viewer down one path of speculation, but upon opening the door, you tumble, like Alice, down a rabbit hole of a completely different house. Sketching out the story (read more)
Much like the rest areas of today’s modern automobile travel, or the busy interchange laden with fast food options, the roadside tavern beckoned to the weary 18th and 19th travelers. Don’t be misled! It was much more than your friendly neighborhood bar.[1] Taverns provided lodging, food, and a gathering spot for the local community – (read more)
There are certain things all Kentucky schoolchildren learn (at least those of us who went through the public school system). All 120 counties, and the county seats. Daniel Boone, blazing a trail through the wilderness. That Derby Day is a sacred holiday, and that while basketball may be the Bluegrass religion, we revere a 19th-century (read more)
I’ve been very, very lucky to spend three of the past five summers in England. But while I was away, playing across the pond, morning glories took over my garden, my dogs lost any semblance of obedience, and my pocketbook…well, let’s just say that historic preservation is not a career one pursues for the utmost (read more)
It can be hard to look at something from a time you recall and have it labeled “historic.” Of course, in fashion, a decade is all it takes for styles to be revamped and recycled, which perhaps leads to a more open mindset among the fashion-conscious crowd? Architecture tends to strike a more personal chord (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture, Mid-century Modern
Tags: Architecture, Atomic age, Mid-century modern, recent past
As a child, I made houses of anything and everything (leaves were a challenging, yet ephemerally charming material). I inherited my older siblings’ Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs, and a series of dollhouses. The Lincoln Logs, however, were a favorite – made even more intriguing by the fact that we had an actual log house (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Green County, Kentucky architecture, Vernacular, Vernacular architecture
Tags: Bourbon County, Green County, Lincoln Logs, Log houses
Winter seemed very, very long this year. So as the last (I hope) of the snow melted, I bounded into the garden, (mud slushing underneath my feet) anxious to observe the awakening of the frozen earth. And then I groaned. Have you ever fallen in love with a plant? It is a mad crush, rendering (read more)
Spring oozes poetry. Jonquils and crocus burst from the previously frozen ground, the spring sky (when not gray and rainy) transcends the color blue, and picture-perfect lambs and calves cavort – all these stock metaphors of the season inspired someone, somewhere, to verse. And although I feel winter’s gloom has stretched on for immeasurably too (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Farming, Kentucky architecture
Tags: abandoned, Edwin Arlington Robinson, poetry, Spring
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