Every historic building has a story to tell
Most of my professional projects involve only the exterior of buildings. So when I get the chance to document a house on the outside and inside, I’m in a tizzy – but also overwhelmed! Floorplans are easy, and help tell how people used the building – how they got from the front door, say, to (read more)
Category: Kentucky architecture
Tags: #historicinteriors, #kentuckyarchitecture, #overmantel
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
Around 1880, Patrick G. Rice hired a local builder by the name of Henry Conley to build a house off of the Middle Fork of Jenny’s Creek in Johnson County, Kentucky. Rice’s new home took a form that had become popular in Kentucky prior to the Civil War – a two-story, central passage house, one (read more)
Categories: Johnson County, Kentucky architecture
Tags: #johnsoncountyky, #kentuckyarchitecture, Farmhouse, Salyer
As I look out of my window onto a warm, sunny day with gusts of wind that presage the winter storm moving our way, I wish the weather wasn’t so nice. Instead of sugarplums, there are a dozen ideas dancing in my head, begging to be written and shared. Dahlias, drive-in move theaters, flamboyant architects, (read more)
One of my enduring Christmas habits is listening to Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” in a lamplit room alone with only my own memories. As Truman Capote recites in his high-pitched sing-song voice, with 2020 stripped to its barest essentials, and Christmas rapidly approaching, I cannot help but think of holiday traditions of years past (read more)
Categories: Guest Post, Kentucky architecture, Kentucky history, Warren County
Tag: Christmas
Bungalow mania gripped most of the United States in the first three decades of the 20th century. The versatile house type appealed to homeowners, developers, and architects alike – and the historic advertisements for what was essentially an unpretentious building form bring joy to any lover of purple prose and hyperbole. One California-based architect, F. (read more)
Categories: Fayette County, Kentucky architecture
Tags: #DrRalphNelsonMaxson, #FGBrown, #housebeautiful, #TransylvaniaPark, bungalow
The porch may be my favorite feature on a historic house. I fell in love with the porch on our 1901 farmhouse long before I committed myself to the rest of the structure. At 11 feet deep and 32 feet long, there is plenty of space about which to be passionate. Alas, my ardor does (read more)
Categories: Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture
Tags: Farmhouse, porch light
On the north side of Hazard, a large goose holds court along the road, a nest she has maintained for almost 80 years. The Mother Goose House, built by George D. Stacy between 1935 and 1940, is one of my favorite pieces of roadside architecture in Kentucky. Words fail to express how excited I am (read more)
Chances are, last time you needed an onion or potato, or perhaps some canned green beans, you did not head outside and descend into your root cellar. Once a staple of most farms and rural properties, root cellars provided storage year-round for root crops (for both human and livestock consumption) and other fruits and vegetables. (read more)
Categories: Kentucky architecture, Outbuildings
Tags: cellar house, historic outbuildings, root cellar, warmhouse
Hickman, in far western Kentucky, is located on five bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. Trade along the river propelled the community, originally known as Mills Point, into a thriving town by the mid-19th century. At that time, most of the town’s buildings were located in “lower section” of town – a location along the river (read more)
Categories: Fulton County, Kentucky architecture
Tags: Dr. James M. Hubbard, Hickman, Neoclassical
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